Ask HN: Has anyone launched a successful start-up to help their local economy? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Has anyone launched a successful start-up to help their local economy?

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I live in a smaller city of about 80k, local businesses have been closing down and it's really sad to see ones hometown go down the drain. Has anyone launched anything in smaller markets and had success?

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I haven't started anything that's really successful, but I'm pretty good at failing. I guess I can tell you what dun work and what you can avoid it in your local city.

- I failed to address the supply and demand issue. When I first my biz, I know I have a pretty decent products, I'm sure your local business has too. The issue just no one is buying it from me, either it is because I'm not working close enough with my regional partners/government, etc.. or I'm not exactly talking to the people who need my products. Idea: You can start a simple directory listing the local business, products and contacts, much like Angie's List. make it available in print-on-demand, pdf format, etc.

- I failed to act swiftly. It is a cut throat business really, if you see a business opportunities, you really need to act now and monetize it. If not, someone bigger and larger will come in and take it from you. You probably need a well tined process to get things out quickly.

- I failed to create the market. If things dun quite work out, it is important than to create a market in itself. Develop value business opportunities for regional/international companies to drop by your city to do business. What can your local community provide better than others out there?

The difficulty lies in that most small businesses in local communities operate in a small, volatile economy that is not impervious to the overall weakening trend. Add to that most communities are anchored by one or several large employers--sources of income are not diversified and any change will hit hard and fast. The more the conditions of socioeconomies worsen, the more people will rely on reverting only to basic necessities (and vice) to meet their needs. One strategy is to hedge the microeconomy by assisting businesses expand their reach without investment (read: revenue share).

Some ideas:

1. Partner with a small business that produces a product, offer to design, market and help them fulfill that product on the web for an X% of the receipts. Example: Guy sees ipad coming, designs and sells ipad case by partnering with SF's last remaining booksellers.

2. Partner with a service provider (eg. a CPA) to create a lightweight online equivalent similar model to #1. Bonuss points if specialized to an industry and segment open to working online.

3. Start a completely new business by buying equipment from closed businesses, integrated online and employing local workers.

4. Focus on a niche in demand and excel at producing and selling this. Run product scenarios on initial investment entail low-cost, lightweight (or even free) resources resulting in a high-value product comparatively. Scale, iterate and optimize.

I'm assuming you're talking about web-based startups, to which I would have to answer "no."

However, in the more general definition of startup, "yes." Before I moved to SF two months ago, I ran a "home IT" (http://tylerthetechie.com) company in Minneapolis, MN and it was successful (especially considering I was in the heart of Geek Squad territory). I started it in June 2008 after graduating college. Empirically, the key differentiator among small businesses -- especially small businesses during tough economic times -- is service in its truest sense: the customer is #1.

There are plenty of tactics that will be more successful than others, but those will depend more on your business and product strategy. And a key component to your business strategy as a startup should be phenomenal customer service. If you truly listen to your customers, heed their feedback (and separate the wheat from the chaff), and build a product that solves a real problem, it's pretty unlikely you'll fail. (Unless, like me, you secretly wanted to so you could just move to SF already.)

So then. Are you looking to start a startup? If so, what?

Great website! I actually live about 5 hours south of SF... but my skill level is nowhere near what it needs to be to survive up there. (working on it)

My plan is to launch something along the lines of http://Miami.com

I hope to be able to provide affordable advertising for local business as well as giving them some kind of online presence, which many in my town don't have.

The newspaper in town seems to focus more on high advertising prices, where I'm looking at it from the other side of the fence. I'm hoping to attract a higher volume of advertisers at lower advertising prices, since i don't have to worry too much about distribution and production costs.

I plan on having a business directory, events, deals, rentals, jobs, dining section. Basically a city portal for it's residents. The advantage I believe to have is that no one is doing this in my area.

Now the tricky part, getting people to the site. I'm planning on running Facebook ads to get the ball rolling along with asking the people I know in my city to help spread the word, via social networking or the old school way.... actually talking to people. Depending on how this works out I would hope to be able to get a commercial on TV and/or radio, since a lot of people seem to listen to the radio while at work.

I'm a one man wrecking crew, who might be a little too ambitious, but I'm not afraid to fail.

Any feedback on my "plan" would be greatly appreciated since this is the first time I've ever planned anything like this.

Thanks again to all who have replied.

Thanks for the compliment. Made it myself.

As for feedback, you sound like you're in a good place mentally and emotionally so I'm not sure there's any feedback you need other than: go for it. You'll make plenty of mistakes and learn from your fair share of painful experiences. But as long as you keep in mind the problem you're solving -- and the people you're solving it for -- during all steps of the process, you're on your way. Just keep taking another step forward, and be honest about how you feel along the way (and how the situation looks around you).

So: go for it. And keep us informed.

I wanted to tell how one of my friends created a movement for organizing (rather than trying to prevent) Moscow's pedestrian paths that were formed by people walking on grass (this happens because the paved sideways are often very ineffective).

However, I googled it and it seems that they ceased operations. Oh, irony. He moved to NY though.

I havent personally although i recently became interested in social innovation. So i find this topic of interest. I do know someone however that does marketing and social media and they use that to go out the work about their own area.

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