Rebuilding Economies: A Virtual Town Hall for America’s Businesses

Join a virtual town hall event to address critical issues facing small businesses and share solutions for rebuilding economies while leveling the playing field.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and CNBC + Acorns’ Invest in You: Ready. Set. Grow. will host a virtual town hall on Wednesday, September 30, from 1:00 – 2:00 pm EST. The event aims to address critical issues facing small businesses and share solutions for rebuilding economies while leveling the playing field.

“Our communities are reeling from an economic halt while facing racial justice issues that strike the core of our nation,” stated town hall organizers. “As we rebuild in a post-COVID world, we need to ensure small and new businesses not only survive but thrive. Businesses less than five years old create nearly all net new jobs in the country, yet they continue to be left out of the national dialogue. This is especially true for people of color, women, and rural entrepreneurs.”

The Local Crowd will ask a question relating to how we can best leverage the Shop Indie Local movement this holiday season.  The Local Crowd, along with the American Independent Business Alliance and others, will lead this year’s Shop Indie Local effort starting on November 1.  By gathering ideas from industry leaders, we hope to discover new ways to amplify this movement.  We can’t wait to hear answers from their panel of speakers.

Registration is free. Please reserve your seat today!

 

Take a look at what communities have done to rebuild their communities on the campaign page.

Don’t forget to sign up for The Local Crowd newsletter with the form below, and follow along on Facebook to stay connected and learn more!

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Inspire Your Audience to Take Action on Your Crowdfunding Campaign

Create marketing content that inspires your audience to take immediate action.

 

A call to action (CTA) is a strategic part of marketing strategy that inspires your audience to take immediate action upon responding to the content you’re sharing on your social media feeds, press releases, digital content, or traditional advertising mediums. This small but mighty sentence is the workhorse of your content and ideally, you’ll include one in every social media post you share. 

Curious about how to inspire your audience to leap into action? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know when our campaign launches and take advantage of our early-bird rewards! 
  • Visit the link below by Friday at midnight to pre-order this one-of-a-kind product and support our business’ crowdfunding campaign!
  • Share our campaign on your favorite social media platform and help us spread the word as we near our crowdfunding goal! 
  • Comment below with what menu item you’re most excited to try once we meet our campaign goal and launch our food truck! (Tag your friends who will join you for an afternoon treat!)

A call to action (CTA) is a strategic part of marketing strategy that prompts your audience to take immediate action upon responding to the content you’re sharing on your social media feeds, press releases, digital content, or traditional advertising mediums.

Take a look at how businesses have inspired their communities to lend a hand of support on our campaign page. Don’t forget to sign up for The Local Crowd newsletter with the form below, and follow along on Facebook to stay connected and learn more!

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Community Placemaking, The TLC Way

Community placemaking has become a critical tool for transforming underutilized public spaces into safe gathering places.

 

As COVID-19 pushed dining, performances and other primarily indoor activities outdoors, community placemaking has become a critical tool for transforming underutilized public spaces into safe gathering places. Think of the public spaces you live, work or travel by every day — parks, streets and other publicly owned spaces. Placemaking turns those public spaces into places that boost our health, happiness and well being.

True placemakers listen first. They ask questions and learn how people currently live, work and play in a space — and explore what needs or dreams individuals have for that space and their community.

Then, placemakers design spaces that build upon community assets, serve a diversity of needs, build social networks and forward multiple initiatives. Placemaking includes adding permanent or temporary elements such as seating, public art, gardens and crosswalks.

The Local Crowd invites communities to use our tool to listen and gather their community to support their placemaking efforts. Take a look at what communities have done to transform their public spaces on the campaign page.

Don’t forget to sign up for The Local Crowd newsletter with the form below, and follow along on Facebook to stay connected and learn more!

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Relationships & Rewards Bolster COVID-19-Challenged Economy

Local businesses make up the fabric of any prosperous community, and all have seen an impact from the ongoing COVID-19-challenged economy. 

Local businesses make up the fabric of any prosperous community, and all have seen a profound impact from the present and ongoing COVID-19-challenged economy. 

In his recent publication, “The Case for Local Rewards (In the Post-COVID Era),” Michael H. Shuman writes, “Rewards that incentivize local purchasing and local investing are increasingly becoming the gateways for challenging economic behavior.”

We know that relationships are a foundation for resiliency and prosperity in the rural economy. As people connect to businesses and businesses connect to local initiatives, a mutual and collaborative support structure is built, creating a foundation to revive in the face of turmoil. Through the crowdfunding lens, as Shuman writes, pre-purchased rewards offer a tangible and mutually beneficial approach to locally lending a hand.

Imagine a local farmer in need of support after the pandemic’s mandated closures of their wholesale restaurant accounts. The business needs money to survive, just as the community needs access to fresh food.

The farmer can raise capital by pre-selling produce shares at a discounted rate, allowing their business to gain financial support, and the community will receive a monthly delivery of fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables. Both the customer and the business benefit, thus cultivating a richer relationship and progress toward a healing community at large in a troubling time.

Read more on the power of locally owned businesses in the rural economy in the full publication, “The Case for Local Rewards (In the Post-COVID Era)” from economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur Michael H. Shuman here. 

Relationships & Rewards Bolster COVID-Challenged Economy

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