Economic development: Matchmaking services
Just a quick follow up to my post on the Coney Island-style theme park that was built in Saint John’s Rockwood Park over 100 years ago.
As I have written about on many occasions, there seems to be this view among government and economic development folks that Adam Smith’s invisible hand is constantly at work delivering optimal economic outcomes. If there is a market for a pet groomer in the community, an entrepreneur will magically step up and fill that role.
That hasn’t been my experience.
I’d like to see a little more ‘visible hand’.
If you have ever been to a franchise trade show that is what I would like to see. At those shows, there are dozens of companies trying to get potential entrepreneurs to buy the franchise. Some (many) even have targeted markets already picked out - Truro doesn’t have a Popeyes Chicken yet.
How about a trade show where Chipman or Digby or Kedgwick are peddling entrepreneurial opportunities in their communities? Hey, look at our data, it would seem there is enough market demand for a physiotherapist or a plumber or a pet groomer.
I’m not suggesting governments incentivize or subsidize these entrepreneurs. Nor am I saying that governments should pick and choose what businesses they want in their communities.
What I am saying is that increasingly there is a lack of information on these opportunities and a lack of local entrepreneurs. So two things are happening. One, communities are seeing less entrepreneurship and that is either compensated by national or international firms (the consolidation of funeral home services, for example) or by nothing -forcing residents to leave the community to access the service (or pay more to have that service come to them).
So ‘economic development’ should be about shining light on those opportunities and seeking out prospective entrepreneurs.
It matters now more than ever. Our communities are old and need to attract people if we want to meet workforce demand. We need families to move in - at unprecedented levels (urban and rural). Our communities -large and small - need to be working hard to be great places to live. A big part of that is having access to services in the local community when there is enough demand to justify those services. We may have to attract immigrant entrepreneurs into those communities.
And BTW this also applies to large scale opportunities (i.e. Magic Mountain in Rockwood Park). We need to identify the potential big stuff too. Have a large mineral deposit near your community? Have thousands of acres of fallow farmland? Have ideal locations for aquaculture? Have potential for a big tourism project? Have the talent pool to attract IT companies? The good news with the big, export-focused opportunities is that there is provincial government support (ONB, etc.). Not so much if you want to attract a cat-themed coffee shop.
We have dozens of ‘incubators’ and ‘accelerators’ across Atlantic Canada that are providing support for entrepreneurs but I’m not sure how many of them are doing what I am proposing here.