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What Can We Do?

Ready to take action to strengthen our local economy? The following 6 steps are an overall summary of what communities can do to strengthen their local economy by building local business. (Derived from a talk given by Michael H Shuman in Boulder September, 2007.)

After reviewing the community plan, be sure to review the actions you can take as an individual, and what the Mile High Business Alliance is doing to support Colorado's local businesses.

Community Plan


  1. Have a Vision: Economic planning should include discovering the "leaks" in our local economy.
    Where are we unnecessarily importing goods and services? Where could we be localizing production and manufacuring?

  2. Develop Entreprenuers: Create mentorship programs to train and support budding entrepreneurs. Develop incubators that nurture new businesses with a local focus. (There are 1,000 business incubators in the U.S. Of the businesses they launch, 87% are successful)

  3. Build Business Alliances: Small businesses are better able to compete against large corporations (and their budgets) when they come together for marketing, advertising, and purchasing. To compete with the conveinence of big box stores, we could create "local business malls." To reduce the cost of goods sold, some local businesses have created spending co-operatives.

  4. Invest in Local Business: The majority of our financial sector is focused on investments, mutual funds and exchanges. Where can we be investing in local businesses, rather than mulit-national corporations?

  5. Drive Local Demand: Encourage and entice consumers (and business owners) to purchase locally first.

  6. Change Public Policy: Level the playing field instead of favoring non-local business.

 

Individual Actions


  • Examine the products you buy at the store - and buy items produced, manufactured or distributed close to home.

  • Buy your weekly produce at the nearest farmer's market .

  • Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, and reduce the distance from farm to table

  • Buy the rest of your grocery items from a local food co-op.

  • Refinance your mortgage through a local bank - they're slightly cheaper, and more of the money will circulate in our community

  • Cut up your credit cards - and stop supporting multi-national banking institutions that have no roots in our community

  • Be healthy - prevention is inherently local

  • Conserve energy (check out our 53 tips to conserve energy)

 

What the Mile High Business Alliance is doing to strengthen our local economy


Public Education and Outreach
Our Colorado Local First campaign and directory provide education and resources for people to find local businesses and products in our region. We're doing the research to find the Colorado based businesses with the most sustainable, most local practices. Next summer we'll unveil our local coupon book.

Connecting Businesses
We're connecting local business owners through member events and our directory. Future programs will include a credit clearing system and business to business exchange currency.

Find out more about benefits offered to Alliance members.