Do You Want A Job Or Not?

Although the majority of my blog posts are not focused on local Farmington, MO news or stories I could not help but to do a post about a local story that is frustrating beyond belief.

For a few of my thoughts on this topic that were discussed on my LocalTek Tech Tips radio show this morning you can read Local Tek Owner Supports Big River Telephone.

Recently the government awarded Big River Telephone a chunk of the rural broadband stimulus funds based on the ability of the company to rapidly deploy a stable and reliable wireless broadband network that will provide thousands of people throughout Southeast Missouri with the ability to connect to the internet in the same way most of us take for granted, at broadband speeds.

In todays world it is virtually a requirement to have access to high speed internet if a community wants to be able to compete in the business world today, or if a student wants to have access to the same information other students across the US and the world have.

Although I tend to lean to the conservative side when it comes to taxation and stimulus I can see the benefits and the value in programs such as this when done correctly. I accept that the money is going to be spent and it needs to be used on quality programs that create quality, lasting jobs, that provide other benefits for the long term, such as education and economic development. In this case the rural broadband stimulus does that.

Now, for the frustrating part. As part of the award of the funds to Big River Telephone it had been discussed they would locate Big River Broadband, the arm of the company deploying the network, in Farmington, MO which is a rural, but very progressive business community in Southeast Missouri.

In an area such as this it is difficult in many cases for individuals coming out of college to be able to stay local because there are not many professional level technology jobs in the community. This means that there is a drain on the community based on the educated and skilled labor leaving for large cities for higher paying, professional or technical jobs that do not exist locally.

I cannot go a month (or a week) without hearing people talk about the lack of the ability to find a good job or hearing people complain about jobs going overseas or to Mexico for manufacturing. With the economy being what it is small communities need to do everything they can to find high paying, quality jobs that are long lasting in their community.

With most jobs that locate to these regions being low paying jobs that can be moved overseas easily (i.e. call centers, manufacturing) shouldn't a community fight to get these jobs to their area at every chance they have?

Virtually every community in the area Big River Telephone will be serving has fought for these jobs to be located in their community.

The City of Farmington, once learning of the potential of Big River Broadband to locate in the area, offered incentives for the company to be able to relocate to an unused building in the downtown area.

The TIF amount are rumored to be in the $100,000 range.  That is a $100,000 incentive to create millions of dollars of economic development in direct money to be spent by new jobs in the company. That does not include the associated businesses and non-direct impact of long term value to a community having a solid tech company that is growing in the area.

Typically you bring one and more come, also what people sometimes overlook is that this will empower people that once never thought they would have an opportunity to create something to possibly have an idea sparked after being around the atmosphere that a company like this brings.

So, why then, would people complain?  Is it just to complain for the sake of being heard? In the community there have been a few folks that have caused a hold up and concern for the many people looking for these jobs because they are complaining about the incentive.

Keep in mind these people complaining are people who are in positions to not have to worry about such things but their lack of foresight and their lack of ability to  look at the bigger opportunity this creates has the potential to drive these jobs elsewhere. And they WILL GO ELSEWHERE, they will not disappear. Would this group prefer these jobs go to another community that WILL give something to get this.

Big River Telephone is not some huge corporate conglomerate so people cannot complain about big business getting all the breaks, I have known the team at Big River since they acquired a small phone company in Cape Girardeau and have worked day and night to create what the company has become today.

If the money is going to be spent to provide stimulus I have to look past my feelings on such things and realize the money is going somewhere, the stimulus money will be spent, I want it to better the community I am in and not go elsewhere because people are not thinking about the long term impact but just trying to make a stand for the sake of being heard.

The moral of the story here, no matter if you are in my local area or not, if someone is working hard to keep jobs local, keep your kids from moving away since they do not have the opportunity locally, and are trying to have a long term positive economic impact on your area support them. Do not EVER complain about jobs going overseas if you are not going to support keeping jobs in your community.

I never had the opportunity to stay in the community I live in based on the fact there was not a professional level job that offered the opportunity to do what I wanted to do or an income potential that went with it. I had to travel over 100 thousand miles a year on planes to have that opportunity. I have a son that will be in college in the short term future, he may want to move away but I also like the thought of supporting companies that want to create jobs that can create opportunity for him locally as well.

Thanks for letting me rant!

Working With Local City Officials To Increase Brand Awareness

One of the great things about the seminar plan that we have used here at Localtek and Missouri.me is that it allows us to get direct reaction from customers, consumers, and local government officials. This can really work to your benefit if you are developing a geo domain as a vote of confidence from local government officials can really strengthen your companies standing in a community.

I have noticed that across the state of Missouri links from local libraries, city websites, etc have increased as we have went on even without our requesting, that is great news and I expect to see it continue as we start phase 2 of feature development for the site.

Well, we have taken it one step further with one of the most progressive business communities in the state which is Farmington, MO. The area is growing fast and has continued to do well even in the down economy. We were fortunate to have the economic development director attend one of our seminars last year and he could immediately see the value of the education received from the seminar could be of real value to the businesses in the community.

One thing he could see, as well as many others, is that many business owners knew they needed to care about being online, needed to care about things like Facebook, but most did not even know where to start or had seen a good example of use. Our seminar had shown that, after speaking to him we decided to work together to put together another  seminar in the area promoted by the city and to be given at city hall.

Well, this week it was confirmed and an email went out to all subscribers of the city newsletter. I think this s a great example of what having real feet on the street people to promote your online services can do. Education is key, I tell people all the time as much as I want them to buy from us at the end of the day the more people that are educated on how marketing is changing the more we all benefit long term. You can only educate if you are out there with the business owners and city officials.

And also, for those that think online marketing is just about advertising online, our seminar shows it is not. There is a holistic plan you must use to market online, things are changing everyday as people use their mobile phones and social networks to get the info they need.

So, I wanted to say thanks to the city of Farmington for their support of what we are doing.

We have some other very interesting joint promotion concepts that we will be announcing soon as well. Lets just say sometimes your competition can actually be your best friend....

Speaking Today To Farmington Business Leaders

Today is going to be booked from start to finish with the morning kicking off with a seminar speaking to the business leaders of Farmington, MO. Farmington is one of, if not the (depending who you ask) fastest growing areas in Missouri. Our partner Big River Telephone worked tirelessly in promoting the seminar and once again went offline to promote to businesses that need to start thinking about how to promote online.

I must say that spending time with medium and small business leaders in a group setting like this is about as good as it gets, I enjoy every minute and some of the questions and discussions are very insightful  as they can help me (and others) understand what the people not focused on the online world are really thinking about technology.

One of the things that really amazes me is the number of people using Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. I always ask for a raise of hands before I start speaking to find out how many people use each of the services. Facebook always leads, Twitter is always second, and Linkedin third. No real surprise but what I do find interesting is that the crowd is typically not real tech savvy but a rough estimate would be 70 percent of most rooms have Facebook accounts.

As I type that I also realize more and more I am seeing people not even put their website in their commercials on TV, they just go straight to their Facebook page. What a coup for Facebook....

Now, I do spend a portion of the presentation talking about proper domain name selection and after seeing the acceptance of social networking there are very few people who even understand what  a domain name is. I am happy to help do that education.

Farmington is a very progressive area and I expect todays presentation to be a bit different than others and since I know some of the people in the room this time it should make for good back and forth.