City of Birmingham Mayor's Office ’s Post

ICYMI: client The Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia shares perspectives from Philly's #smallbusiness owners, in an op-ed for The Philly Citizen on steps the city's next mayor can take to prioritize #equitable #entrepreneurship. Read more, below. #sustainability #triplebottomline

Small businesses are the backbone of our state's economy – they play a critical role in supporting our towns, creating jobs, and fostering a sense of community pride. In my latest blog, I dive into the reasons why #westvirginia is a great place to start a #smallbusiness. Click below.  

Looking to expand or invest in the Riverdale, Bronx NY area? Here's why you might want to focus attention on North Riverdale. There's an untapped market brimming with potential! However, are you equipped with the tools to unlock it? Often businesses overlook how socioeconomic divides between neighborhoods can impact their success. The Department of City Planning is proposing a study to streamline economic development across the two Riverdale boroughs, a major move which could reshape North Riverdale's business landscape. As an entrepreneur, are you ready to leverage such emerging opportunities? Are you partaking in community dialogues and discussions around urban development? Are you positioning yourself as a stakeholder in such developments? It's crucial to thoroughly understand the dynamics of your potential business neighbourhoods. Without the right expertise, you could miss key opportunities or face unfavourable surprises. This is where a Business Consulting Professional can be vital. With the knowledge and experience of working across diverse business landscapes, they can guide strategic decision-making, helping you navigate through uncertainties. Feel free to connect if you have any questions or are ready to explore Riverdale's untapped potential. Let's navigate and conquer these exciting new business frontiers together.

Small businesses are the backbone of local communities, driving economic growth, creating jobs, and enhancing social cohesion. They shape community identity and foster unique local cultures. However, when these businesses close, the impact can be deeply felt across the community. Job losses, reduced economic activity, and weakened social bonds are immediate consequences. The closures can strip a community of its unique character, potentially leading to decreased property values and diminished local pride. In rural areas, the effects are even more pronounced, as small businesses often provide essential services and serve as primary community hubs. Supporting small businesses is crucial to maintaining the vitality and resilience of communities everywhere. We're committed to supporting communities and ensuring that no town loses its identity due to business closures. Reach out to learn how we can help or discover what you can do to make a difference! #TheAtticusCompanies #Supportlocal #SmallBusiness #CommunityImpact #LocalEconomy #ShopLocal #BusinessGrowth #RuralBusiness #SustainCommunity #LocalPride #Entrepreneurship

Very interesting post by my old friend, Melissa Menke. Well done and clearly written! A critical barrier to sustainable and scalable investment in the communities who need it, is the financial concept of “wrong pocket.” We can identify the measurable benefits for an attributable group of people and families that are caused by a specific group of actors, like the companies you are trying to get to collaborate. However, almost invariably none of those actors will share in the resulting savings or upside (to government health budgets, to employer productivity, to reduced prison recidivism, etc.). Instead, the benefits will flow to the “wrong pockets,” other organizations downstream that will save money or receive other benefits because of the work your collaborating upstream organizations accomplished. Heroic attempts around the US to solve these problems with neighborhood level investment alone (more or less coordinated) are benefiting the people who live there, but not creating a successful financial model that is sustainable, much less one that will scale. A new book, “The Fifth Freedom” by David Erickson, Senior VP at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, points in a new direction calling for a new financial approach that puts a market value on health, while not abandoning at all the need for parallel neighborhood level investment (what Erickson calls “guardrails.”) Our Collaborative Community Response Initiative in Colorado has a proposed solution which we are trying to test in multiple, diverse communities. The financial model we are exploring requires a different structure of finance to solve wrong pocket and its evil twin: timeframe of ROI. Consistent with Erickson’s thinking, we believe a sustainable, scalable solution requires a parallel comprehensive investment by a formal collaborative of community leaders and social/clinical providers (what we call a “Commons”) in a holistic, wraparound program for specific, attributable groups of individuals and families to help them flourish. The transformation causing model we are trying to design and implement is a partnership between such a formal community-based collaborative and the kinds of investors you describe in your essay. That formal collaborative “Commons” will be the central coordinating body to organize and deliver the help needed to flourish by the Commons members: individuals and families attributable over a measurable period of time. And the Commons turns and looks downstream. It provides a single place to solve wrong pocket by negotiating and collecting a share of the downstream benefits from the various government and nongovernmental organizations that will benefit if the members of the attributable population flourish -- using some of those funds to pay off your investors. Designing and running field trials to identify the scope and extent of those benefits (as well as the best way to produce them) is the mission we are on

Chad Quick explains how the city council he is near has been very development focused. They're very interested in growing our city residentially, commercially, and industrially. And that takes a partnership. A lot of them are small business people; they're all involved in business. They understand that the developer has to make money, and yet at the end of the day, these are Altoona residents that they have to make happy as well. So it's trying to find that middle ground. You know, we like to try to find a way to yes, to try to figure out a way that we can work through some of these things. . . . #CityCouncil #Development #AltoonaResidents #CommunityGrowth #Partnership

Are you passionate about your community? Learn the tools to leverage community assets, support the creation of new small businesses, and create and retain wealth within NE Oregon. Wallowa Resources, Rural Engagement & Vitality Center (REV), and Northeast Oregon Economic Development District (NEOEDD), in partnership with Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC), are facilitating a workshop series to address the challenges and opportunities for local and regional economic development with real solutions by: • Evaluating local assets & community wealth • Discovering new economic opportunity • Identifying community leaders/entrepreneurs to turn opportunity into growth • Creating plans to turn ideas into actions INTRODUCTION & ORIENTATION SESSION (attending all sessions not necessary) • February 13, 2024: 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM • February 14, 2024: 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM // 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM LOCATION Cook Memorial Library Community Room 2006 Fourth St, La Grande, OR To RSVP (Preferred), Contact: Aaron Reimler (RCAC) areimler@rcac.org #communitydevelopment #smallbusiness #wealthcreation #NEOregon #economicdevelopment #ruraldevelopment #workshopseries #LocalEconomy #RegionalDevelopment #AssetEvaluation #Entrepreneurship #CommunityLeadership #ActionPlans #EconomicOpportunity #RuralResources #NEOEDD #WallowaResources #EOUREVCenter #RCAC #LaGrandeOregon

Most places put out a business development grant or business services and then 1) just wait to see who shows up and 2) are disappointed when the same few businesses keep showing up. I've learned that this just doesn't make enough of a difference when we want to build a local economy that benefits everyone in the community. We need to do more. And we need to do it differently. In fact, the answer to this need is right in front of you. It can all change in THREE DAYS! Read the full story about how we helped one city jump out in front and pull in a whole new business sector that was sitting right in front of them. https://lnkd.in/g_Yzngb

Most places put out a business development grant or business services and then 1) just wait to see who shows up and 2) are disappointed when the same few businesses keep showing up. I've learned that this just doesn't make enough of a difference when we want to build a local economy that benefits everyone in the community. We need to do more. And we need to do it differently. In fact, the answer to this need is right in front of you. It can all change in THREE DAYS! Read the full story about how we helped one city jump out in front and pull in a whole new business sector that was sitting right in front of them. https://lnkd.in/g_Yzngb

Dreaming of being your own boss and starting your own business? Whether you have a brand-new idea, a side hustle you want to grow, or simply a passion for entrepreneurship, we've got you covered! Kick-start your journey by filling out this form: https://lnkd.in/e7ee8BhA  #SmallBusiness #Startup #Entrepreneurship #BusinessFundamentals #ValleyCDC