An Entrepreneurial Approach to Economic Development

In 1987, the City of Littleton, Colorado pioneered an entrepreneurial alternative to the traditional economic development practice of recruiting industries. This demonstration program, developed in conjunction with the Center for the New West, was called "Economic Gardening."

Economic Gardening is based on the the simple concept that small, local companies
are the source of jobs and wealth and that the job of economic developers is to
create nurturing environments for these companies.

Today, support of entrepreneurial activity is spreading as a policy approach due to the energetic work of a number of national and regional organizations including the Kauffman Foundation, Edward Lowe Foundation, Milken Institute, Progressive Policy Institute, Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and Babson College. States like Wyoming, Georgia, Michigan, and North Carolina have either formal entrepreneurial policies or pilot projects underway as a part of their economic development efforts. Major states like California regularly include "economic gardening" as an agenda subject in their state economic development conferences. Even bigger cities like Oakland and Berkeley have small pilot economic gardening projects underway.

  The real issue for municipalities, or government organizations, is how
   to make Economic Gardening deliver results in a "reasonable" amount
   of time. For municipal and state officials "reasonable" means
   YESTERDAY. However, the reality of the situation is that it typically
   takes anywhere from 6 to 12 months to staff up an Economic
   Gardening organization and make it functional. Governmant officials
   want IMMEDIATE gratification!

  Contact GeoWize today for a free estimate on the Economic
  Gardening services that you need for your organization!

PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION: THE ECONOMIC GARDENING JUMPSTART TEAM can help you get your EG program up and running TODAY!!! Check it out now.