Website marketing workshop scheduled

On April 7th from 8:00 – 10:30 am, the Ord Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a website marketing workshop with the Website Doctors.  Our instructors will be leading the workshop with a focus on seven critical mistakes to avoid when marketing your business online.

The cost for the workshop? $24.00 if you register through the Ord Chamber.  And as a benefit to our Ord Area Chamber 2010 members, the first five to sign-up are FREE.

For more information, download the brochure here, or contact Janie @ ordnebraska@frontiernet.net

The agenda for the workshop is below:

8:15 – 8:30 Check in for program
8:30 – 8:45 Introduction & general concepts to be covered
8:45 – 9:30 Principles of site construction, Driving visitors to your site, 7 mistakes not to make
9:30 – 9:40: Break
9:40 – 10:30: 7 mistakes continued, Optimization, How to keep them on your site longer
10:30- on: Questions – individual meetings

2010 Action Plan

We’ve finalized our 2010 Action Plan, for your perusal here.  Let us know what you think – 2010 looks to be a fun year!

Living by small town rules

Gary Vaynerchuk, a wine and social media guru, has an interesting post about what social media is doing to global business:  forcing us to behave as if we live in a small town.  Give the video a look here because it’s well worth your time.  Whoodah thunk treating strangers like a neighbor results in financial gain?  Remember that post on Seth Godin a couple of days ago?  Godin talks at length on the importance of sincere customer service – and we Nebraskans might have a sizable leg up on the competition.

Enjoy the weekend!

Did you know 4.0

The video below is part of an ongoing (and updated) conversation on how social media is transforming the media landscape.  Consider it an elaboration on our last social media post “Is social media a fad?”.  Check it out (hat tip to Tina in West Point):

Young entrepreneur scholarship

Inventors Digest has the scoop on a scholarship opportunity for young entrepreneurs:

The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is currently accepting applications for the 2010 Young Entrepreneur Awards. High-school seniors with a flare for entrepreneurship are encouraged to apply online for a chance to win a scholarship valued from $1,000-$10,000. The deadline for applying for an award is December 31. If you know an impressive young entrepreneur, encourage them to apply today.

Students can visit www.NFIB.com/YEA to apply for a scholarship online.

Check it out!

New inventors website

Listening to NPR usually pays off in useful information that I share with all y’alls.  Case in point:  Edison Nation.  Edison Nation is a new website clearinghouse for inventors.  If you have an idea, patent it and create the product, Edison Nation serves as a broker to national retail chains and manufacturers.

Give them a look here.  Their video page is well worth a few minutes of your time as well.

One more thing – think about that big idea you had, write a venture plan for the East 2 West competition, and use Edison Nation to launch your idea.  Just a suggestion 🙂

The Brain Drain

Newsweek has great coverage of a new book out, Hollowing Out the Middle, which takes an in-depth look at the implications of brain drain and how rural communities can address the challenge of losing their best and brightest.

Many of you know me by now – I’m not a native of the area, my wife and I have been here a year now and we love it.  LOVE IT.  We also believe this community is and will continue to be a leader in rural opportunities because of one simple phenomenon:  positive change.  We’ve written about the impact of positive change here, here and here.  The infectious attitude is prevalent wherever you look.  We are lucky to be in a community that continues to invest in itself:  civic, community and economic.  This impact has created a community that is primed to tackle brain drain head-on.

The lessons to be learned from Hollowing?  There are many, and in Valley County we’ve nailed them all and in many respects are ahead of the curve with respect  job creation, educational engagement and long-term investment.

I’ll leave you with this from the article.  As a community, we’ve been able to deliver on several mechanisms that provide a pathway to deal with the hallowing effect.  Have a look at how far ahead we really are:

But there are people maybe with young families or who tried urban living and wanted to opt out and try something else, who could be lured to the region—maybe not every 22-year-old, but maybe a 32-year-old who would think, “This is great. I can raise my kids, I can buy a gigantic house. And as long as I have the digital infrastructure, I can telecommute. I can have a very good quality of life.” I think the lifestyle rural communities have to offer is really more compatible for young families. There are also ways to lure back professionals through more aggressive tuition breaks for medical students [in exchange for a commitment to return to the community after graduation], which I think is going to become more appealing as students take on more and more debt. And finally, the other thing we want to talk about is pushing the development of our community-college students, creating that infrastructure to match up economic demands for the regional economy with the young people who are most likely to stay.

You could win $50,000

Invest Nebraska is holding a statewide venture competition this winter.  The prize?  $50,000 of start-up cash for your business idea or existing business needs.  Silicon Prairie News has the scoop:

• It will take place on December 11th in Lincoln at the Del Ray Ballroom in Lincoln’s Haymarket.

• Open to anyone 18 or older who is interested in operating a business in the state of Nebraska; all entrepreneurs with a startup idea, as well as local business owners looking to expand or improve their businesses.

• The Competitions are based on the success of the annual Hormel Family Foundation’s Business Plan Competition in McCook, Nebraska. It was the goal of Invest Nebraska Corp. to take this template to other Nebraska communities, allowing others an opportunity to carry the Nebraskan tradition of entrepreneurship forward.

To learn more, check out the competition info here.  Get after it Loup Valley Entrepreneurs!

Fall Quarterly Report

Our Fall Quarterly Report is available here.  Some nice nuggets on our local business development efforts, entreprenuership, the community college and many others.

Enjoy!

The West Point Challenge

The West Point Chamber of Commerce has levied a challenge to us – a “friend off” on Facebook. Currently, ESCAPE to Loup Valley has 283 fans. The West Point Chamber has 322.

You can see our Facebook page by clicking here.   I don’t want a bunch of Northeastern Nebraskans beating us at a game we started!  Don’t forget to forward on our Facebook page to your friends as well!

We’re looking forward to your support!