How Cities and Businesses Can Grow Together

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How Cities and Businesses Can Grow Together


Article by ICIC's Steven Pedigo, originally published on Inc.com

Location, location, location! We’ve all heard that, for many small businesses, one of the keys to success lies in landing the right real estate.  But the reverse is also true: Small businesses are essential drivers of America’s cities, and your company and others like it have the capacity to make your city a prime location, location, location!

As businesses invest in their community, the community grows and becomes healthier.  Businesses then reap the benefits of being part of a thriving community. This principle of shared value – creating economic value while also creating value for society – lies at the very heart of economic success.

Here are five ways your business can increase its competitiveness by helping to re-energize your city.

1. Your Neighbors; Your Talent. Hire Locally.

Before looking at outside talent, fill positions with residents of your own community if possible. Hiring locally benefits your business, your city and your neighbors.

Employees who live and work locally are more engaged, and their employers enjoy increased employee retention and reduced fringe costs. Seeking talent locally and promoting from within is good for your neighborhood too: it boosts local employment rates and drives dollars back into your community.

To read the entire article, click here.

Very good article, thank you for posting. What I did not see is an organization to help facilitate these activities. This is worthy of a good case study or two.

By George Harben on 02/15/2012

The concepts discussed in this article pinpoint what we are trying to accomplish in Rock Hill, SC with the redevelopment of the historical Bleachery property ( http://rockhillbleachery.com/).

By Michelle Rojas on 02/17/2012

This is a really interesting article and I wish they could’ve written more about the symbiotic relationship between small businesses and cities. Obviously because it’s Inc., it mainly is from the viewpoint of the entrepreneur. However I would’ve loved to have seen more about how cities/regions can nurture entrepreneurship in the other direction as well.

It’s good to hear that Rock Hill, SC is an example of communities supporting small business, and there are certainly many others out there. But it seems to me that too many economic development groups are still missing an opportunity by engaging with the small biz scene. The opportunity for job growth is stronger and more sustainable than chasing the larger companies (not that those efforts should be ignored).

On a related note, this story in The Atlantic makes some solid points about government (could also be econdev orgs) needing to create safety nets for entrepreneurs so we have more of them: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/02/the-entrepreneur-state-safety-nets-for-startups-capitalism-for-corporations/253211/ .

By Steve Duncan on 02/17/2012





BY Steven Pedigo on February 14th, 2012

TAGS: cities | small business | entrepreneur | jobs | business | clusters | workforce | real estate

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