Day 23: What Makes Your Community/Region Unique?

Day 23:  What makes your community/region unique?

When we develop a plan for our clients we spend a lot of time focusing on finding out what unique features they have.  Or at least some features that not every community has.  They can be simple things like located on a navigable river, interstate or lake.  A lot of our clients are rural so they rely on agriculture.  It could be that you have a cluster of like businesses.  Whatever it is, we encourage you to build upon it.  A rising tide lifts all boats is very applicable when trying to grow your community.  Don’t spend all your energy on things you don’t have at first.  Spend your time building on your strengths.  Dubuque, Iowa has been a great client and will make a great example of what I am taking about.  They have built on their strengths and improved their weaknesses.  In the mid-sixties Dubuque was losing jobs faster than anyone else in the country.  The leadership got together and have turned that around.  In today’s paper Dubuque is the fourth lowest cost of living in the country but has all the amenities you would want.  They started by focusing on the fact they are located on the mighty Mississippi.  When foreigners think of the USA, they think of Walt Disney World, New York City, Hollywood and the Mississippi.  Dubuque cleaned up their area along the river.  They spent a great deal of energy taking care of the major employers.  They then focused on fixing some of their key problems.  They were the largest city in the USA for many years with out four lane access.  Through years of hard work, they now have four four lane highways coming into town.  Because of their hard work at taking care of their existing business, they were able to entice IBM into Dubuque a few years ago.  It is a vibrant and attractive city with strong leadership.  They understood what made them unique and built on that.  Next:  What should my typical day look like?

Next Previous