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I write this post from the very beautiful and peaceful porch of the Chestnut House Inn Bed and Breakfast in St. Joe’s Michigan. I just finished several pieces of quiche, some fresh Michigan picked fruit, fresh squeezed orange juice, hazelnut coffee maple sausage and strawberry muffins. Yes I ate all that, much to the chagrin of my stomach.
At this point I was going to make an excuse about eating all of that food, but I’ll just save it.

But this isn’t about my guilt. It is about this little vacation I have taken. taken on the tail end of the business retreat at the Lowe’s foundation. I did it because I believe everyone should slow down once in a while. I look at all the celebrity deaths this past week and with the exception of Farrah Fawcett, my guess that everyone lived in excess in some way. Excess food, work, stress, drugs, alcohol, money, the list goes on. But never do we live in excess “being there”. I had a friend once ask me, after I told him of all the things I needed to achieve that had yet to be achieved, the money that had to be made that hadn’t been made, the relationships with my family that had to be improved, can’t you just “be”? Wow, my first thought was, “what medication is he taking; was he raised by a Tibetan monk; is he crazy?”

Taking time, even if its a day to just “be” has become really important to me and I find it even more so today. We are constantly bombarded by bad news, we are stressed by the economy, by global issues, by terrorism, wars, the list goes on and on. But if you can just be in the moment you can ease up on your stress. Whether it is zen inspired meditation, Christian prayer, or Islamic devotion; Or whether it is just mindless sitting on your front porch watching the world go buy and wondering how birds fly and grass grows, just be there.

I was peaceful and relaxing to just “be” in St. Joseph, Michigan this weekend. Time to go back to work tomorrow. Talk to you soon.

I just finished a business retreat with 14 other economic development professionals. Talk about alpha dogs. Everyone in the room is a natural leader and everyone wants to say something and everyone wants to be the boss. It was interesting to see how it all fleshed out. I am happy to say, we all left as friends, and we left with actually accomplishing quite a bit of work.

The retreat was held at the Edward Lowe Foundation facility in Cassopolis Michigan. Just north of South Bend, Indiana, and Southwest of Kalamazoo, Michigan, this 2,600 acre slice of heaven is a beautiful place. Mr. Lowe is most famous for inventing the indoor cat. More specifically he invented Kitty Litter. He took his fortune and developed this property in southwest Michigan, ultimately building and developing a sanctuary for entrepreneurs. You can read about what the foundation does and who they serve on their website.

So why was I there? the EDC belongs to a group within the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) called Economic Development Research Partners (EDRP). The EDRP is composed of about 30 communities and economic development organizations that are interested in influencing and developing primary research and providing peer-to-peer learning opportunities for themselves. The problem was, even though after a couple years, and one research project (globalization) under our belt, the group seemed to be floundering. We had no agenda, we had no rules, and no model for conducting research. To be sure, the IEDC research team led by a very able Shari Garmise actually does the in-depth research. The group however must tell her and the IEDC staff what we want to know, what research is important to us and how do we implement the findings.

A well facilitated program by skilled people who understand how to get entrepreneurs to work together can surely tame a group of very smart and able economic developers, right? Well, that’s absolutely true. Gino Signore and his team from the Edward Lowe Foundation skillfully helped us get through our very strong opinions and disagreements, and even an activity called “The River Tweed”, that just about had us ready to kill poor Dino and each other. Knowing that beer, wine, s’mores and a campfire were waiting on the other side of this activity probably prevented us from a more tragic evening.

I’ve been through a lot of retreats, facilitated programs and brainstorming sessions, but this one was probably one of the best. I truly enjoyed myself, getting to know other economic development professionals, taking walks through the pristine woods and meadows the foundation has preserved and sleeping in converted railroad boxcars (honestly, it is not as bad as you would think). I am looking forward to next year. Pick a date Jeff Finkle, fast.

I feel bad for the City of Bloomington, Illinois (one of the communities I work with). They are in a real pickle. They have a gaping budget deficit and it doesn’t look like it is going away anytime soon. Many communities are going to continue to see and feel the impact of the recession for the next couple years. Prudent spending and smart budget decisions will have to be made, not only in Bloomington, but also other communities. So what is a smart budget decision?

A community can only make decisions that are “smart” if they have a strong sense of the values of the community. That’s a tough one. Every aldermen or representative on a board, and in particular if you are organized in a ward system, like Bloomington is, must determine what the values of the their little corner of the world are. What’s more important, physical issues like streets and roads or social justice for their poor. Or is it the same? I’m not sure how each alderman measures it, but I’m sure they have some sense of it whether they are polling their constituents or just taking phone calls.

Tonight the City of Bloomington has to decide whether they should continue to spend $80,000 annually for their investment in the EDC. It isn’t as simple as, “Wow, 80 grand is a lot of money, shouldn’t we patch a pot-hole or fill in that vacant position at the library or fire department or public works? Sure, those are sound logical choices. But I would argue the $80,000 invested in the EDC is highly leveraged, and thus will provide for much more than those positions or choices could ever fill or do.

The EDC can and does help business grow and expand. That adds to the bottom line of the community. What we do helps add dollars to the company payrolls, which means people spend money in the community for basic sundries as well as entertainment and their homes. This all adds to tax revenue which means the City can provide for the services they feel the community wants, which means the quality of life improves and people end up enjoying the community they live in.

For those aldermen who say that we must cut everything, consider the strategic implications of your cuts. Cutting services or employees are different than cutting one of the mechanisms that helps your community grow. When your major industries and employers are either stagnant or cutting back what else do you have to fall back on? What sounding too pompous, we are the golden goose. Plucking feathers doesn’t hurt us, it hurts you, and your ability to deliver your promise.

If you live in the City of Bloomington, and believe in what we do, come to the City Council meeting tonight and support the EDC. Better yet, call your alderman or any alderman for that matter, and ask them to support and carry through on their promise and pledge. You can find their email and contact information at their website.

The May numbers are just out on the sales of homes from the Bloomington Normal Association of Realtors. Some may recall in this blog news of the BN area having the best housing market in the US and that we would, over the year, have an increase of 3% or so.

Current numbers indicate we have a way to go. The good news is that the bad news isn’t so bad. The average price of a home sold in BN has decreased 8% over last year when counting new construction and existing homes. You are better off if you are selling the home you have lived in for a while rather than being a home builder. The average decrease in value of existing homes is only 2.5% as compared to a year ago in May. The average decrease in new construction is 13%. That is good news for buyers, but bad news for the builders.

In addition, volume is down double-digits in both categories. New construction is down with a 49 home decrease or 31% under last year’s numbers. Existing homes show 12% decrease or a total of 85 fewer homes sold over May of last year.

If the Bloomington Normal area is going to reach that increase reported earlier, we have a long way to go.

I am impressed by our local paper’s move into social media. The Pantagraph is a Lee Enterprise’s paper and has recently developed a social media site called MyPantagraph.com. The site looks and feels very much like a Facebook or other social media site however it is yet to be tested. Reading some of my fellow local Tweet posts about the new site, I hear some people are not impressed, however, like many new technology initiatives, it may take some time. Will it save the Pantagraph from the same fate other local newspapers have undergone. Only time will tell. But kudos to the local paper for trying.

A good friend works for the New York Times and is involved in their dot-com effort on the business side of the paper. I also know a number of local journalists, and we have had discussions about the future of the newspaper. Most of what I hear tells me that we are in an era of major change. I think in ten years (probably less, but I’m hedging my bet) we will not be reading newsprint-based newspapers. We will either look at them online, or on our Kindle or its progeny. I know I am late in this prognostication. It once made me sad to think of this, but I am getting over it.

Check out the video below. Thomas Crampton was a former journalist for the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. I like his explanation of how the internet has impacted journalism and even his own career. I also love the fact that he records this from what is obviously a small format camera while walking through the Hong Kong Airport. Watch this and tell me what you think?

Also, check out Thomacrampton.com for more insights.

Ken, Springer of the Bloomington Normal EDC reports this morning that unemployment rates are mixed in April. Several communities showed improvement, however the question is, are we seeing a trend? Hard to say, but if these small improvements here in Illinois and elsewhere in the US keep happening what you will see will be continued improvements in consumer confidence, and that will be significant.

The April unemployment numbers are out, and Illinois metro areas seem to be mixed in their performance. Here are a list of metros in Illinois and their March to April unemployment rates:

Bloomington-Normal DOWN 6.3% to 5.9%
Champaign DOWN 6.9% to 6.2%
Chicago UP 9.4% to 9.8%
Decatur FLAT 9.8%
Peoria UP 8.9% to 9.2%
Rockford DOWN 13.5% to 12.1%
Springfield DOWN 6.8% to 6.0%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

How are you doing? Laying off or adding on?

Recently several people I know have started using Twitter for their business. It is important to understand the nature of Twitter and the self-regulation that occurs among Twitter users. It’s kinda like burping in public or sneezing. There are certain protocols you use, and for the most part most people abide by them. In meetings, seminars and conferences on social media that I have attended and from reading the Tweets of those I follow I quickly came up with a few rules for my business friends to follow. Of course there will be more at our social media seminar on June 10, and July 11. Here are some simple guidelines:

1. For your commercial Twitter account, don’t be too crass with direct pitches for your business in your tweets. People will turn you off.

2. Be personal. Even thought it is about your company, personify your tweets. Make sure your tweets have a personal “voice”.

3. Promote your clients and the work you did for them, and not yourself directly; It’s obvious who did the work; Promote your clients and other offerings, not just the work you did for them. Consider a client a week, and promote them in your tweets.

4. Tweet about your professional area or promote some allied vendor you work with. Also promote things you are interested in and has something associated with your business.

All this will provide you credibility with your followers. The lack of direct selling is why Twitter works well for most people. Twitter is about being in a community. A community of people who like each other and want to help each other. Having direct “advertising” pitches in your face doesn’t work too well in Twitter. Other places are more acceptable (FB fan pages).

If there are other tips, comment here.

Good news from the Prairie. Our Unemployment rate is down. Should we all rejoice and throw a big shindig. Hooray the recession is over! Hardly. There will still be some pain, but there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Ken Springer, project analyst at the Bloomington-Normal EDC reports:

The unemployment rates for April have been released. BN dropped .4% to 5.9%, which is the second straight month of decline and a further sign that the recession may be finally abating in our community.

Statewide, the unemployment rate went up .3% to 9.4% and nationally, it went up .4% to 8.9%.

Not earth-shattering, but good news anyway. How has the recession affected you or your company. Have you been laid-off or had to let some people go? Tell us your story.