Today’s entrepreneurial communities must leverage each others’ resources in order to compete in the global marketplace. By sharing resources, communities, as well as entrepreneurs, can greatly reduce the costs of supporting and conducting business.

Communities can expand the pool of human capital that can be leveraged by collaborating with other communities. They can also realize new opportunities to build off of each others’ products and services. The following are ten simple strategies that can help entrepreneurial communities to leverage local and regional assets.

1. Build economies of scale: Foster collaboration between communities to reduce costs for marketing, promotion, education, communications, facilities, and other costly activities.
2. Compile information about complimentary regional assets: If well marketed and coordinated, complimentary regional assets can be used to draw more visitors, customers, and clients into the region.
3. Share resources: Look for new ways to share resources. This can greatly reduce the costs for facilities, infrastructures, coordinating staff, technical expertise, and other necessary resources.
4. Provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to build off each others’ business ideas and ventures. Businesses that perform complimentary functions invariably add to each other’s productivity. As an example, a recreational fishing outfitter can help to draw tourists who might also purchase dried foods from a local grocery store. Communities can help to foster linkages between entrepreneurs to help them capitalize on each other’s assets.
5. Catch the eye of grantors and supporting organizations/agencies: Many granting agencies and organizations give preference to projects that demonstrate community and regional collaboration – this enables grantors to show broader impact for their dollars spent.
6. Expand the pool of human capital that can be leveraged: Every community maintains a pool individuals, associations, organizations, and institutions that maintain a wealth of skills, resources, hopes, dreams, desires, etc. Through collaboration and cooperation, communities can share these resources instead of duplicating activities and functions.
7. Get political powers-to-be to notice: Projects and activities that demonstrate multi-community collaboration are more likely to catch the eye of legislators, state and federal agencies, and other policy-makers. By catching the eye of policy leaders, communities can enhance their opportunities to leverage public support for entrepreneurial ventures.
8. Create a vested public: By working together, communities can engage a broader public that is vested in entrepreneurship.
9. Don’t be afraid to ask for help: Some regional assets need to be ‘coaxed’. As the expression goes, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.
10. Exercise patience when seeking to leverage regional assets: Not only does it take time to cultivate regional assets, but the outcomes are often not immediate. But, just because the ‘payoff’ may not be immediate, communities and entrepreneurs can potentially reap greater rewards in the future.

Prepared by Charlie French, University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension