Author predicts boom for small towns During a one-hour presentation Thursday morning at Olney Central College, Schultz told more than 100 community and business leaders from Richland and surrounding counties that the path a town takes determines whether it will find success or closed doors. The program was sponsored by Olney & the Greater Richland County Chamber of Commerce and Richland County Development Corporation. Schultz, of Effingham, is the author of "Boomtown USA: 7 1/2 Keys
to Big Success in Small Towns" and the CEO of Agracel, Inc., an
industrial development firm that specializes in what Schultz calls the "agurban" market,
a term he trademarked and which is an economically successful town at
least 50 miles away from an urban area. Schultz shared the ideas of trying to bring success to small towns, giving multiple examples of successful towns, including his own. In the late 1980s, Effingham was in a crisis. Several industries left and its economy was starting to die. Schultz and several other people got together and decided something had to be done as they no longer wanted their town to be held hostage to a corporate board. Schultz remembered being told that industry would be brought to the area by others, "not you." It took five years for things to fall into place but Effingham was recently listed as the fifth best town in the country to create jobs. The national media ignores the positive things that happen in small towns, Schultz said, adding that a third migration movement is occurring now in America. More people are moving from the suburbs to the "agurbs," he said, because people are looking for a better quality of life and cost of living. Forty-five states have agurbs. A community is considered an agurb if it experienced population and employment growth from 1990-2000 and a per-capita income growth of more than 2 percent per year from 1989-1999. In his research, Schultz compared 397 agurb communities to 10-26 cities. Metro areas increased their population by 10 percent between 1990-2000 while agurbs increased their population by 20 percent. Employment growth in cities grew by 9 percent and 24 percent in agurbs. The top three "high-tech" cities, Boston, Seattle and the area in California known as Silicon Valley, had a 10-percent population growth over the same 10-year period while the top 100 agurbs had a 28-percent growth. Employment in the three cities grew by 12 percent but jumped 32 percent in the agurbs. From January 2001 to January 2004, one out of three jobs were in the 397 agurbs. The prevalence and growth of agurbs is something Schultz feels is going to change the country. It will not be long before air-taxi networks are established to have passengers fly from Olney to a desired location, reducing the travel time to go to a major airport. Two companies are already established. "It's going to revolutionize where people think they can live," Schultz said. That could mean more of an exodus from major metropolitan areas. Deregulation is allowing smaller communities to increase their numbers because they can offer a more affordable cost of living than cities, he said. There are seven and a half things communities should do to find success, according to Schultz. And while there are many people who do nothing but complain and find reasons not to improve a town, risks need to be taken, he said. The first step is to adopt a can-do attitude. Peru, Ill. spent $100,000 on a retail development near an interstate and ended up having six times the retail sales as its larger neighbor, LaSalle. Shaping a vision is the second key to success, according to Schultz. Columbus, Ind., which is an hour south of Indianapolis and has a population of 39,000, found a vision and is now called the sixth-most architecturally significant city in the United States. Schultz said it takes passion to get an idea moving and one person with passion is worth more than 50 to 100 people "who are just kind of interested in what's going on." Big payoffs can come when a town leverages its resources. Schultz said that helped Lebanon, N.H. to become a strong medical community. The key is to focus on what is special about the town, he said. The fourth step in Schultz's keys to success involves raising up strong leaders. In Tupelo, Miss., George McLean and 16 other people helped make the town the furniture capital of the South, not just Elvis Presley's hometown. Tupelo is Mississippi's second wealthiest community. People need help and encouragement in starting a business or industry. There were 59 people living in Santa Claus, Ind. before Santa Claus Land, now known as Holiday World, opened in the late 1940s. The town is now an economic hotbed of activity, Schultz said, referring to it in his fifth key to success: Encourage an entrepreneurial approach. Maintaining local control is also important for success, Schultz explained as the sixth key and gave Effingham as an example. A $50-million investment was made on 100 acres of land and a manufacturing base was formed, creating hundreds of jobs, including a Krispy Kreme manufacturing facility. Schultz joked that with a population of 12,000 people, Effingham still does not have a Krispy Kreme retail store, much to the chagrin of many people. The seventh step is something Branson, Mo. knows well: "Build Your Brand." Jim Owen owned a theater called Jim Owen's Hillbilly Theater. Owen coaxed movie stars to come to town and have their picture taken at local businesses. Business grew and today there are 46 theaters in Branson and there are more seats than Broadway. The town has a population of 6,000 and has become so successful that Nashville is called "Little Branson," Schultz said. Step 7 1/2 in Schultz's keys to success involves "Embracing the Teeter-Totter Factor." It is important for towns to embrace people and their ideas for growth and prosperity, Schultz said, despite the fact there will always be those who can be classified as Citizens Against Virtually Everything or CAVE people. There are different paths towns can travel but it is up to residents and leaders which way to go. Working together is critical and Cape Girardeau, Mo. and Southeast Missouri State University, which is located in the town, proved that when they improved the town. Schultz said only eight cities and universities have worked together the way Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri State University have. Too often, he said, people have a silo mentality and do not work together. Schultz mentioned Wal-Mart during his speech and said the corporation focuses more on rural areas than urban. The average distance of a distribution center to a metropolitan area is 111 miles. The lowest cost of operation for Wal-Mart is in towns like Olney, Schultz said, adding it is an advantage to growing agurb areas. "You're in the sweet spot in Olney," he said. Schultz wants to research how former Wal-Mart stores are being utilized in small towns. Some communities are using the buildings as manufacturing plants, antique malls, city halls, county facilities and for other retail businesses. At the conclusion of the program, Schultz was asked what he thinks about industry moving overseas, particularly to China. He said he was concerned about it a year ago but feels that in the long term, the United States will "end up raising up the whole world" and will sell things to China and India "and we will gain through free trade." It is more a political issue than an economic one, he said. "We are seeing a major resurgence in manufacturing today," he said. Many agricultural opportunities in the United States will have to be outside just corn and soybean operations. Schultz said more diversification will lead to more success and the future of agriculture is not with just a commodity market. He said America will prosper with free trade and the Central American Free Trade Agreement. CAFTA will be beneficial to the U.S. because it will give Central American countries more economic opportunities, making it less likely people will cross our borders, he said. If one job is created, four others are also formed, according to Schultz. It is called the Multiplier Effect. "This is especially true with manufacturing jobs," he said. The average yearly salary in manufacturing jobs in Olney is $28,700
while in retail and trade it is $17,345. by Kevin Ryden
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