HomeTown Competitiveness (HTC) is a comprehensive approach to long-term rural community sustainability. This approach goes beyond the traditional “tunnel vision” scope of many economic developers—namely, industrial recruitment. HTC helps the community focus on four interrelated strategies that depend on each other for ultimate success. The first and most important strategy is to build a skilled and increasingly inclusive leadership group with the capacity to improve and sustain the community. The second strategy targets factors that are needed to engage and attract youth and young families. The third strategy concerns acting to capture a portion of the wealth that will be transferred between generations. Finally, the fourth strategy uses the transferred wealth to energize and support entrepreneurs in building local businesses and creating jobs. The National Center for Rural Entrepreneurship has more information on this program at Entrepreneurial Community of the Month.
These resources are brought to you by the Cooperative Extension System and your Local Institution
Welcome
eXtension is an interactive learning environment delivering the best, most researched knowledge from the smartest land-grant university minds across America.
Have a question? Try asking one of our Experts
Have a specific question? Try asking one of our Experts
Unlike most other resources on the web, we have experts from Universities around the country ready to answer your questions.
This resource area was created by the: Entrepreneurs & Their Communities community
Resource Area Feeds
In This Resource Area
TOPICS:
Got an hour? Watch & Learn
Youth Entrepreneurship
What do kids know about business? You'll be surprised!
E-Commerce Learning Modules
- Direct Marketing for Specialty Food Products. Learn strategies to direct market and sell specialty food products.
- Electronic Retailing. More and more of our communication and social behaviors involve computers and networks. Nonetheless, it is not as simple as it might appear to connect the dots on electronic retail and turn it into a successful venture.
- Going Global: A Guide for e-Commerce Expansion. A worksheet driven learning lesson for the established e-commerce business exploring export/import opportunities.
- A Primer for Hispanic Small Businesses. In both English and Spanish, this module was founded in the belief that e-commerce education should not only be available to Spanish Speaking business owners but also that small business stand to benefit greatly from the patronage of the Spanish speaking consumer.
- Marketing Food Specialty Products OnlineThe purpose of this learning module is to assist food retailers in making decisions on the use of online technologies in their marketing and planning strategies.
RESOURCES:
Build Your Business
- Online Tutorial on Farm Leasing
- Strategies to Improve Farm Business Management
- Visual Merchandising: The Silent Salesperson. View a recording of a marketing workshop conducted by Glenn Muske, Oklahoma State University. The workshop covers some key aspects of display as a sales tool. The workshop is approximately 45 minutes long.
Building Entrepreneurial Communities
- E-Commerce Module:Connecting Rural Communities
- Strengthening Competitive Advantage of Rural Businesses with e-Commerce and Experience Economy Strategies
- Mini-Course: Developing Diversified & Value-Added Agribusinesses
Blogs to Watch