Building the Rural Economy With High-Growth Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs create economic growth in their communities by forming new firms. Each year during the past decade, more than half a million businesses were started that added new jobs in the United States. In the 1990s, during the longest economic expansion in the United States economy, the majority of new jobs were created by small and medium-sized entrepreneurs operating highgrowth businesses. Because entrepreneurs are such a wellspring of growth in the economy, many rural policymakers have shifted their long-time focus of recruiting existing firms, such as branch plants, to developing new entrepreneurs. Most policymakers recognize that entrepreneurs usually start out with limited financing as small or medium-sized firms operating in a variety of industries and places. As a result, policies generally support a wide range of entrepreneurs. However, policies often fail to recognize that the benefits of entrepreneurs can vary dramatically, depending on the entrepreneur’s desire to build a high-growth business. And rural areas often lack these high-growth entrepreneurs. This article presents a fresh review of entrepreneurial activity in rural America and discusses some of the new ways policymakers are beginning to encourage high-growth entrepreneurs in their communities. The first