Your Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Your Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

AgriLife Extension economist (yours truly) leads rural military entrepreneurship study

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A team of researchers have received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create guidelines to better assist rural military veteran business owners.

Dr. Craig Carpenter, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economist in College Station, is leading a group looking to identify business entrepreneurship opportunities for rural U.S. military veterans.

Read the full article here: https://today.agrilife.org/2018/08/17/agrilife-extension-economist-leads-rural-military-entrepreneurship-study/

New Research on Latino Self-Employment

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My colleague and I employ U.S. Census Bureau data from cities of 10,000 or more to examine the impact of immigrants in American cities on self-employment and median income. The results show that self-employment has a statistically significant and positive impact on median income and immigrant population. When controlling for race populations, lagged immigrant population has a negative impact on self-employment, but removing the Hispanic control causes this relationship to become statistically insignificant. In other words, Hispanics, not other ethnicities, drive much of the self-employment in U.S. cities. An implication is that more attention to helping Hispanic business owners succeed and expand their businesses could benefit the general population of a city.

For more, the full academic journal article is here: http://www.jrap-journal.org/pastvolumes/2010/v47/jrap_v47_n2_a1_carpenter_loveridge.pdf

How to Determine the Best Location for Your Business and Create a Business Data Report

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The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a great video explaining how to generate a business report about your potential customers and other businesses like yours for your area or a new market using the Census Business Builder. Check it out below:

Recruiting Participants for National Project!

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Do you work with retail businesses, for example providing training or consulting services related to business or financial planning, marketing, customer service, or other support services?

We are excited to announce a web-discussion on “Retail Businesses: Resources, Challenges, and Factors Influencing Success.” Your experiences and perspective will provide valuable information as we assess different approaches to help communities identify local industries with strong opportunities and better support those businesses.

Because the webinar will be structured as a discussion, you will learn about what your colleagues nationally are doing and we will share some of the latest statistics and research on local factors that contribute to business success. We hope to learn from your experiences and share that information with others.

Please let us know if you are interested in joining us for this exciting opportunity by completing the information below including the section, “Please tell us about yourself.”  Because we desire a two-way exchange, space is limited. Once we hear from everyone, you will receive a confirmation on the date and time of your scheduled webinar.

This web discussion is part of a larger project “Mapping Economic Opportunity in Rural America: Mining Big Data for Decision Making in Business Development.” This project is supported by the Agricultural and Food Research Initiative Competitive Program of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), grant number 2016-10918. The research was reviewed by the Texas A&M University Institutional Review Board (IRB2017-0056).

To learn more about the larger research and Extension project, visit the announcement at ow.ly/JmNz30cz94I.

If you are interested in volunteering to participate, please reply to Dr. Craig Carpenter (ccarpenter@tamu.edu) with the following information by May 7, 2018. We will select among the common availability to place you into a focus group.

PLEASE INDICATE ALL DATES AND TIMES YOU ARE AVAILABLE. Based on the responses, we will select one date and time for your participation.

May 14, 2018

___ 11am-12pm (EDT); 10-11am (CDT); 9-10am (MDT); 8am-9am (PDT)

___ 1-2pm (EDT); 12-1pm (CDT); 11am-12pm (MDT); 10am-11am (PDT)

___ 3-4pm (EDT); 2-3pm (CDT); 1-2pm (MDT); 12am-1pm (PDT)

 

May 15, 2018

___ 12-1pm (EDT); 11am-12pm (CDT); 10-11am (MDT); 9-10am (PDT)

___ 2-3pm (EDT); 1-2pm (CDT); 12-1pm (MDT); 11am-12pm (PDT)

___ 4pm-5pm (EDT); 3-4pm (CDT); 2-3pm (MDT); 1-2pm (PDT)

 

May 18, 2018

___ 11am-12pm (EDT); 10-11am (CDT); 9-10am (MDT); 8am-9am (PDT)

___ 1-2pm (EDT); 12-1pm (CDT); 11am-12pm (MDT); 10am-11am (PDT)

___ 3-4pm (EDT); 2-3pm (CDT); 1-2pm (MDT); 12am-1pm (PDT)

 

June 18, 2018

___ 11am-12pm (EDT); 10-11am (CDT); 9-10am (MDT); 8am-9am (PDT)

___ 1-2pm (EDT); 12-1pm (CDT); 11am-12pm (MDT); 10am-11am (PDT)

___ 3-4pm (EDT); 2-3pm (CDT); 1-2pm (MDT); 12am-1pm (PDT)

 

June 21, 2018

___ 12-1pm (EDT); 11am-12pm (CDT); 10-11am (MDT); 9-10am (PDT)

___ 2-3pm (EDT); 1-2pm (CDT); 12-1pm (MDT); 11am-12pm (PDT)

___ 4pm-5pm (EDT); 3-4pm (CDT); 2-3pm (MDT); 1-2pm (PDT)

 

June 27, 2018

___ 11am-12pm (EDT); 10-11am (CDT); 9-10am (MDT); 8am-9am (PDT)

___ 1-2pm (EDT); 12-1pm (CDT); 11am-12pm (MDT); 10am-11am (PDT)

___ 3-4pm (EDT); 2-3pm (CDT); 1-2pm (MDT); 12am-1pm (PDT)

 

June 29, 2018

___ 11am-12pm (EDT); 10-11am (CDT); 9-10am (MDT); 8am-9am (PDT)

___ 1-2pm (EDT); 12-1pm (CDT); 11am-12pm (MDT); 10am-11am (PDT)

___ 3-4pm (EDT); 2-3pm (CDT); 1-2pm (MDT); 12am-1pm (PDT)

 

PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF:

State: ________________________

Primary Business Type Supported: __________________________________________

Primary area of work (check all that apply): Urban______ Suburban______ Rural______

Website: _______________________________________________________________

 

Sincerely,

Craig Carpenter, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist – Community Economics and Business Development

Texas A&M University | Department of Agricultural Economics

AgriLife Extension Service

ccarpenter@tamu.edu

 

 

Community Development Institute Texas 2018!

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See the announcement here (http://www.lonestar.edu/cdi.htm) and read more from them below. I will be attending as an instructor to discuss the nut and bolts of business retention and expansion! Hope to see you there!

Never before has the practice of community development been more important than it is today. As the world grows smaller through the increased use of global communications, communities of all sizes are finding their boundaries are expanding beyond their city limits. CDI Texas provides practical, interactive, and comprehensive training designed to meet the needs of economic and community development professionals working in a fast paced environment. CDI Texas builds the capacity of individuals and communities to effectively and positively impact economic and social development.

Who Should Attend?
Participants include community and economic development practitioners, city, county and state officials and community volunteers, non-profit staff and board members, chamber staff, private industry, municipal districts, and academics will find the Institute a valuable learning tool for the development of individual and community leadership skills. Attendees will expand their ability to identify community assets, set goals, encourage collaboration, and respond to a broad range of economic and quality of life issues.

Last Day to book:
February 11, 2018

What Is Business Retention and Expansion and Is it Right for Your Community

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Interested in learning some about Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E)? Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service has a new publication out on BR&E. The publication discusses what BR&E is generally and then focuses on two types of BR&E: the classic business visitation program, and the industrial cluster retention and expansion program. It also discusses why it would probably be good for your community! Check it out at the link below:

http://agrilifelearn.tamu.edu/Business-Retention-and-Expansion-p/eag-046.htm

Hispanic and Latino-owned Businesses Increasingly Important

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Recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau emphasize the importance of Latino-owned business in the United States.

Although Latinos still make up a relatively small share of the total business in the United States, compared to non-Latinos, the number of Latino-owned business is growing relatively quickly. The number of Latino-owned businesses increased by 46.3 percent from 2.3 million to 3.3 million in the five years between 2007 to 2012. The total number of all U.S. firms increased at a relatively the slow rate of 2 percent during the same period, from 27.1 million to 27.6 million. Hence, if not for Latino-owned businesses, the total number of U.S. firms may have decreased over that time period. The Latino-owned business receipt growth rate similarly outpaced that of all firms, with an increase of 35.1 percent from $350.7 to $473.6 billion, compared to 11.7 percent growth from $30.0 to $33.5 trillion for all firms.

Reaching out to your Latino community members when discussing any economic development planning or entrepreneurial gardening is essential. Most importantly, reaching out is essential because you should always be sure to include a diverse and representative group in these efforts to maximize buy-in and productive contributions to the process. But reaching out is also important because failing to make an effort to invite your Latino community members will simply exclude a large portion of your small business owners.

See the link below to read the Census’s post:

http://blogs.census.gov/2016/12/01/hispanic-owned-businesses-on-the-upswing/