Dynamic Decisions Podcast

Jamie Nichols covers North Central Oklahoma for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, and her job starts with asking who in a town is already selling outside it. One county believed it had “maybe half a dozen” micro businesses. Then someone pulled the data and found 500 registered. 

Even if only 25 of those are real and unseen, that’s 25 businesses a community can help grow, and that is economic development. The makers are findable. You start with the mayor and the city clerk, then check the town Facebook page and the vendor fairs at street festivals.

Once you find them, you have to keep them, and keeping them takes more than goodwill. Jamie and Teasha Cable get into what holds a rural economy together:

• Retention beats recruitment every time. Each retention attempt teaches a town which resource it is missing, so the next maker is less likely to leave.

• When 150 jobs threaten community character, don’t choose yes or no. Negotiate community benefits and ask what the town should get in return.

• Know what you own. The buildings you have, and the electric, gas, water, and internet each one carries, decide whether a growing business expands in your town or the next county over.

• Turn data into a story. A city council that is lost in a spreadsheet stops listening, and a council that hears the story acts on it