Jim Metcalf
Updated: September 2, 2024
Opinion
Viewpoint: Small towns as business incubators, part 1
By Jim Metcalf
Small towns have undergone dramatic change, from being the center of the universe for area farms to becoming isolated bedroom neighborhoods of larger city centers.
As businesses close or move, Main Street becomes a collection of empty storefronts. With a town not meeting their needs, more people look elsewhere. Town governments find it much more difficult to provide services like education, police, and fire with primarily residential tax revenue, diminishing business taxes, and resident tension.
Residents who work at locations outside of town often feel like they are visiting the small hometown only for overnight and weekend stays. They shop in strip malls on the way home or make weekend trips to box stores or entertainment locations. Others shop online, which increases their isolation. This leads to a decline in community life and pressure on town leaders to reverse the trend. A common approach for town governments is to recruit big corporate businesses, which promises jobs, taxes, and a good future. Trying to recruit big business is not easy. A large business can locate anywhere; therefore, it searches for the best deal in everything from highway access, utilities, and tax breaks. Towns often negotiate from positions of weakness.
This problem is not new or unique to your town. Hundreds of small towns have faced and, in many cases, solved the problem. The solution lies within the small town but is often overlooked. As one unnamed town economic study committee reported, “Our economic development planning survey is attached. Note: We don't include farms, home-based, or mobile businesses.”
Who this town is overlooking are all the small businesses like farmers who produce fruits, vegetables, eggs, and honey and sell them in farm stands. They are overlooking people who sell services like lawn care and home building. They overlook musicians and bakers of cakes. People who babysit, teach crafts and skills, and organize trips are overlooked. All the makers, artists, and crafters who sell their creations online and in marketplaces are not counted. The truth is every small town can identify a hundred or more small and home-based businesses, which form an economic foundation of the community. Collectively, they can build the economic and social revival of the town and even attract new business ventures.
Jim Metcalf is a SCORE Mentor in Central and Western Massachusetts. His work with the Worcester County Chapter of SCORE for the past 18 years has focused on small and home-based businesses in small and rural communities.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This column is part of a three-column series by Jim Metcalf on small towns. To read the other two parts, click here.
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