Bringing commerce (especially eCommerce) to a small town
I have big dreams. Always have. So many ideas run around in my head all the time. One that I would like to explore further is bringing commerce to a dying town. I love the look of old buildings. We drive through so many nowhere ville places for our Amazon business. I'm always having my husband cruise around so I can see all the old timey places. One thing we notice at times is that if the town is poorer or has less of a population than it did, there will be all of these for sale signs on cool looking buildings. I just want to buy them all up!
So when I see a dying town, I think, what can I do to bring life back. If I buy the old building, how will I pay for it? Mortgages don't pay themselves!
I have no knowledge of factory work, so why not bring in jobs that focus on the eCommerce, since that probably isn't going any where anytime soon. My first idea was just to expand my Amazon business. Running Amazon out of your house, there is only so much you can do. But if I had a building space, an area to house inventory, and then an area for office workers to do the online part, that is one way I could employ some locals and put money back in that community.
Now I'm like okay, one idea, let's go bigger. So all of these sites now have "call or chat" areas for customer service. I know some sites house their own service team, but many out source that. If they can have call centers in India, why not in middle of nowhere US. People would have air conditioning, not have to do back breaking labor, and it's a way to bring an expanding business to a small town that isn't contingent to the residents spending their money to purchase the items.
Now I have a call center, maybe have 50 to 100 employees depending on how large you want to go. Or even just 15 if it's a small start. Open up a little cafe (so many small towns barely have food places except for like Sonic and Popeyes down here). I would open up a little cafe by the call center so that the employees had a place to get easy, quick food or snacks during their lunch break if they wanted, but have it open to the public, so that it can make enough money to be profitable.
Once the money is doing a better job of circulating in the community, why not open a family friendly spot, maybe an arcade or a small bounce house or whatever. That way families have places to go on their off days without having to go to the "big city" or larger towns.
This is just my ideas. I would go to town meetings, talk to people, see what they want. They know what their desires are and I could cater to that. If it's tourism, then make an attraction. (Like the Britney museum in Kentwood or the Flintstones place by the Grand Canyon). The sky is the limit!
I would make sure it's a town with a decent amount of Black people because I want Black people in poorer areas to be able to get decent jobs and not just whatever is available.
How would you expand on this idea?
Update: I wrote them a few days ago. And since then, we drove randomly through a village called Napoleonville. It's small, a population of around 1000, 75% black, mostly women. Medium income is only $18,000/year. This town fits what we want perfectly in that scale. We found an old timey building that needs alot of work, but only costs around $40,000 (we'll try to get it lower). We are going to do our due diligence and start to put our plan into effect. I want to be actionable. I want to be the change.
So when I see a dying town, I think, what can I do to bring life back. If I buy the old building, how will I pay for it? Mortgages don't pay themselves!
I have no knowledge of factory work, so why not bring in jobs that focus on the eCommerce, since that probably isn't going any where anytime soon. My first idea was just to expand my Amazon business. Running Amazon out of your house, there is only so much you can do. But if I had a building space, an area to house inventory, and then an area for office workers to do the online part, that is one way I could employ some locals and put money back in that community.
Now I'm like okay, one idea, let's go bigger. So all of these sites now have "call or chat" areas for customer service. I know some sites house their own service team, but many out source that. If they can have call centers in India, why not in middle of nowhere US. People would have air conditioning, not have to do back breaking labor, and it's a way to bring an expanding business to a small town that isn't contingent to the residents spending their money to purchase the items.
Now I have a call center, maybe have 50 to 100 employees depending on how large you want to go. Or even just 15 if it's a small start. Open up a little cafe (so many small towns barely have food places except for like Sonic and Popeyes down here). I would open up a little cafe by the call center so that the employees had a place to get easy, quick food or snacks during their lunch break if they wanted, but have it open to the public, so that it can make enough money to be profitable.
Once the money is doing a better job of circulating in the community, why not open a family friendly spot, maybe an arcade or a small bounce house or whatever. That way families have places to go on their off days without having to go to the "big city" or larger towns.
This is just my ideas. I would go to town meetings, talk to people, see what they want. They know what their desires are and I could cater to that. If it's tourism, then make an attraction. (Like the Britney museum in Kentwood or the Flintstones place by the Grand Canyon). The sky is the limit!
I would make sure it's a town with a decent amount of Black people because I want Black people in poorer areas to be able to get decent jobs and not just whatever is available.
How would you expand on this idea?
Update: I wrote them a few days ago. And since then, we drove randomly through a village called Napoleonville. It's small, a population of around 1000, 75% black, mostly women. Medium income is only $18,000/year. This town fits what we want perfectly in that scale. We found an old timey building that needs alot of work, but only costs around $40,000 (we'll try to get it lower). We are going to do our due diligence and start to put our plan into effect. I want to be actionable. I want to be the change.
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