Smude Sunflower Oil is quickly becoming a choice cooking oil for families who are looking for a healthy, flavorful cooking oil.  The premium virgin, cold-pressed oil is a great alternative to other cooking oils on the market.

Recently, Smude Oil was the recipient of a USDA value-added grant. According to the USDA website, value-added grants are used to “promote activities that will improve the customer base for the commodity or product”. In this case, the USDA grant money will be used to increase distribution and promote the Smude Sunflower oil.

In 2009, owner Tom Smude started his cold-pressed sunflower operation and by 2010 he was producing, bottling and selling Smude Virgin Cold Press Sunflower Oil.  This natural oil offers a flavorful, healthy alternative to cooking oil and is on the shelves in 60 retail locations and available online.

A number of organizations have assisted Smude Oil gain traction in the market: Community Development, the Initiative Foundation, North Central Economic Development Association and USDA FSA assisted with the funding for the building and equipment for Smude’s.  The Small Business Development Center in Brainerd packaged the application for the USDA Value Added Grant.

SMUDE ENTERPRISES — Since 2009 Smude Enterprises has been producing its healthy sunflower oil.  This cooking oil alternative has led to additional growth and recognition for Smude Enterprises.  Honored in 2011 by the Minnesota Jaycees, Tom Smude has been recognized as and “Outstanding Young Farmer” and he prides himself on producing a totally green product.  Visit http://www.smudeoil.com to learn more about Tom and his enterprising company.

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+1-888-266-4778

According to the NADCO website, “NADCO is the trade association for the nation’s Certified Development Companies (CDC’s). Our members are non-profit organizations that have been certified by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).”

Community Development of Morrison County is the driving force to attract and retain businesses in Morrison County, MN.

Please “like” the Community Development page on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/cdc.morrison.mn.us

MORRISON COUNTY, MN is located approximately 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul, in central Minnesota at the junctions of Highways 10, 27, and 371.

The presentation is titled ‘Successful Economic Development Websites’ and will focus on many of the strategies have learned to apply while working with economic development organizations and electrical companies across the country. Brossoit and Marshall will share new insights gleaned from recent site selector interviews, share new innovative regional strategies and show how an approachable communications plan can save your organization stress, anxiety and time while accomplishing better results online.

The first presentation is from 10:30 – 11:30 AM in room 4. A repeat presentation will be from 2:45 – 4:00 pm, also in room 4. To learn more about Golden Shovel Agency and their groundbreaking economic development web solutions visit their website online at GoldenShovelAgency.com.

But another problem with the the lower population was recently outlined in the Wall Street Journal article “Bad News for Boomers” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577223632111866416.html).  The point of the article is to highlight that as boomers begin to retire and sell their stock, there won’t be enough buyers.  Yikes!  Another capital problem.  If companies cannot find workers to meet demand and their stock values suffer due to a lack of buyers, there may be another capital crunch.  And unless the banks and the feds figure a way to ease some regulation and tensions in the market, it could make for a bumpy economic ride.

I’d love to hear your feedback!

Cheers!

Ron

Every interaction you have with a coworker or customer is an opportunity to practice the art of interaction. Every product you make represents an opportunity to design something that has never been designed, to create an interaction unlike any other.

As I read this paragraph over and over, I try to understand exactly the point being made by Godin.  What is compelling to me is that this simple paragraph states that in our world today we need to view every interaction and every creation as an opportunity to give a new perspective to our prospects.

When communities are “Tweeting” for sending Faceboook staus updates, they are not just pumping content they are interacting with the world.  Ultimately, the interaction is an attempt by the community to proclaim their attractiveness.  So the next time you send out some social media content, realize the importance.  The 140 characters could change someone’s perspective and convince them to interact with your community.

Cheers!
Ron

Redwood Industries, Inc. has over 35 years of experience of manufacturing wood products and is located 100 miles northwest of the Twin Cities. This family-owned business has provided much needed employment for the rural area it serves. So when the economy slowed, Bujalski turned to Carol Anderson at CDMC.

“The most recent contact was for assistance in restructuring a loan with Community Development of Morrison County, Region Five, and our bank in September 2010,” said Bujalski.

The assistance provided in 2010 helped to keep Redwood Industries, Inc. moving forward and allowed them to focus on their four lines of work:

Storm Doors & Windows
Casual Furniture
Custom Job Shop
Remanufacturing and Milling

Bujalski further explained the overall impact Community Development of Morrison County has had on county-wide economic efforts.

“We have seen firsthand what this organization has done–especially for smaller businesses that lack the resources of larger organizations. We are fortunate to have this organization and others supporting our community.”

Redwood Industries is known for its custom designed and crafted doors and windows. Additionally, the casual furniture division designs, markets and sells and established Adriondack furniture under the Praire Lester Design name. These products cover all ranges of life: kiddie, junior, adult and grandparents.

The custom job shop offers the most flexibility and has worked with entrepreneurs to design & manufacture a wide variety of products: toys, quilting hoops, exercise equipment, and educational products.

Without the vision and leadership of Dick Bujalski, Redwood Industries, Inc. could not be the great manufacturing company it is today. And, without the assistance and cooperation of programs like Community Development of Morrison County, Dick’s dreams and leadership might not be able to grow.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OF MORRISON COUNTY can be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/#!/cdc.morrison.mn.us). Community Development of Morrison County provides assistance in many areas important to business expansion or new location such as attractive financing, identification of potential employees, employee training, local government support, identification of real estate and necessary support services for your company.

MORRISON COUNTY, MN is located approximately 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul, in central Minnesota at the junctions of Highways 10, 27, and 371.

REDWOOD INDUSTRIES, INC. is a millwork with over 35 years of experience in manufacturing a wide variety of wood products. We are located about 100 miles northwest of the twin cities in the farming community of Pierz, Minnesota, and are at the southern edge of Minnesota lake country. Pierz offers the best of two worlds – access to city resources while surrounded by abundant recreational opportunities. We have a wide variety of equipment and serve customers across the nation and internationally. With our equipment we can create or recreate virtually any type of product from wood or wood composite. Visit our website at http://www.redwoodindustriesinc.com

I have asked economic developers and community leaders why they don’t list their email and phone number.  The overwhelming response is that they get too many emails or they can’t manage all the phone calls.  Hmmm?  That answer seems a bit counterproductive to me.

So I wonder, if the leaders are not willing to put themselves out there to be found easily, are they reluctant to move the community message forward?  After all, if the community message is moved forward that will result in increased communication.

What are your thoughts?

Cheers!
Ron

Here is what you can expect:

1. Pictures, Likes, and Apps are located at the top of the timeline
You have control over these items and can arrange them in the order of importance.  It is important to decide what is relevant and move it to be the focus.

2. Administrator Panel
This is a handy feature allowing users to quickly access user information, posts, and activity logs.

3. Messaging
Your fans will be able to contact you directly and you’ll see the new messages appear in the administrator panel.

Facebook is allowing a new cover photo at the top of your timeline; however there will be restrictions on the “sales” nature of the photo.  For example, you won’t be able to put up a big billboard time photo saying “Buy Now!” This photo should be your branded image.  This is actually a great opportunity to have Facebook consistently mirror your community website.

In the end, Facebook is trying to allow users to build their image and tell their personal story and less about selling product.  So for communities using Facebook, this change will eventually give a better look and feel to the community page.  Overall, Facebook is trying to maintain itself as a place for people to spend time reading content.  So for economic developers and community leaders, the goal is still to keep the content fresh and draw people into your community with a great story.

If you have upgraded to the new timeline, I’d love to hear your feedback.  Please feel free to leave a comment.

Cheers!
Ron

Tom Smude, founder of Smude Enterprises, has been farming since he was 12 years old and in 1998 he bought his own farm and began raising cows/calf pairs. His passion for farming is mixed with an entrepreneurial spirit in the bio-fuel industry. And this unique motivation sparked Tom’s interest in making bio-fuel from soybeans. However, the bio-fuel from soybeans would not be compatible with modern equipment so he tried sunflowers, known for their tolerance to drought.In 2009, he started his cold-press sunflower operation and by 2010 he was producing, bottling and selling Smude Virgin Cold Press Sunflower Oil.  This natural oil offers a flavorful, healthy alternative to cooking oil and is on the shelves in 60 retail locations and available online

All of the effort has also paid off and been recognized by the Department of Agriculture.  On February 3, 2012, Smude Enterprises was a recipient of the Value-Added Producer Grant Award.

With the help of Community Development of Morrison County, Smude Enterprises has been able to buy machinery to move the Sunflower idea to reality. They are currently exploring a facility in the Pierz Industrial Park to meet their growing needs and are looking forward to working with Carol Anderson and Community Development once again.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OF MORRISON COUNTY can be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/#!/cdc.morrison.mn.us).  Community Development of Morrison County provides assistance in many areas important to business expansion or new location such as attractive financing, identification of potential employees, employee training, local government support, identification of real estate and necessary support services for your company.

MORRISON COUNTY, MN is located approximately 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul, in central Minnesota at the junctions of Highways 10, 27, and 371.

SMUDE ENTERPRISES — Since 2009 Smude Enterprises has been producing its healthy sunflower oil.  This cooking oil alternative has led to additional growth and recognition for Smude Enterprises.  Honored in 2011 by the Minnesota Jaycees, Tom Smude has been recognized as and “Outstanding Young Farmer” and he prides himself on producing a totally green product.  Visit http://www.smudeoil.com to learn more about Tom and his enterprising company.

I wanted to give a shout out to the newest group of men and women who received their CEcD license. After spending some time with Gabe Schlickau from Black Hills Energy, I got a sense of how much hard work goes into the CEcD license.  Hats off and well done! From what I understand, only 40% of the 24 who took the test this weekend passed.

Made some great connections this afternoon, and I was introduced into four potential speaking engagements for Golden Shovel’s Engaged Community workshop.  I look forward to continuing to bring education and social media tools to economic developers and their communities across the country.  If you are not familiar with the Engaged Community workshop, send me an email and I’ll send along further information: rkresha@goldenshovelagency.com.

During the sessions today, I had a chance to connect with Sara Carabias–well actually we connected on Twitter first as we retweeted each other’s posts and shared the session information. Using Twitter to follow the sessions helped me get the information from sessions I could not attend.  I encourage you to follow Sara online, she posts great information: http://twitter.com/SarahCarabias

At the conference the Triple Bottom Line Tool was unveiled and more information can be found at http://www.commerce.gov/.

The triple bottom line concept expands on the traditional methods for assessing the impact of development activities in a region to include environmental and social variables as well as economic inputs. While the triple bottom line concept is becoming increasingly more common among corporations to assess their bottom line, it is still rarely used by local jurisdictions to determine the impact of economic development efforts.‬

Hopefully, many of you can find the Triple Bottom Line tool useful.

The last session I was able to attend was the Ignite session where speakers had five minutes and 15 timed slides.  The presentations were fast and furious and gave some useful information.  Here is a quick rundown:

• GIS Planning talked about the disruptive economic developer.  It is time to use big data and talent to make a difference in communities.
• Todd McDaniel responding to globalization and talked about the role of globalization for mid to large-sized communities.
• Gail Scott  from Leduk Nisku EDA. Local food initiative to remove barriers for sustainable growth of imports.
• Daryl Phillips from Hickman TN gave a compelling presentation on using QR codes for economic developers. Do you want to get started with QR codes try qrstuff.com!

That is my quick rundown of the IEDC Leadership Summit and if you have feedback, please leave a comment so I can share the information I missed.  I am off tomorrow to meet with some great community members in Albuquerque, NM.

Cheers and thanks for the great conversations!

Ron