Entrepreneurial Nebraska

Don Macke is the Co-Director of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship (www.ruraleship.org), headquartered in Lincoln, who gave an excellent overview of the importance of entrepreneurship for rural communities, “We need a lot less people to grow corn, harvest timber and other natural resource industries. The development strategies that got us to the 21st Century aren’t getting the job done today.”

He talked in depth about Kearney, NE, our only golden eagle agurb® in the state. We picked it objectively from data. Macke explained the background of why it shows so well, “Their peer groups of entrepreneurs were one of the keys to their success. It started with a local bank with a long-term home-grown business strategy. Today they are the second fastest growing community in the state, adding jobs faster than they are growing their population.”

Another case study of the Center is Valley County, NE (population 4,500), which has begun turning themselves around in the past five years thru entrepreneurship. In the last six months they’ve secured $80 million in new investment, added 80 new jobs and developed a youth strategy and youth return program that I plan to blog on in the next couple of weeks.

Don and his team have been in all 50 states, documenting entrepreneurial successes and strategies. Be sure to check out their website for other great case studies of what is possible with this approach.