Amherst County’s vision is to create a community culture that serves as a magnet and a support system for people starting and growing businesses. Amherst County launched into the Certified Entrepreneurial Community® (CEC®) Program in October 2016 with a community entrepreneurship retreat at…
Town leaders gathered Monday, October 23rd at Bass Lake Park in Holly Springs to celebrate the accomplishments of their entrepreneurial leadership team over the past year. Creative EDC officially certified the Town as entrepreneur-ready. The team’s vision for Holly Springs is to create a town…
One metro suburban town, one rolling hills country: Holly Springs and Amherst County are on their way to becoming Certified Entrepreneurial Communities® What do Amherst County and Holly Springs have in common? At least three things: 1. Holly Springs, NC and Amherst County, VA both started the…
It’s official, the first Certified Entrepreneurial Community® under the relaunched program is Cleveland County, NC. The CEC® Program is an economic development strategy that equips communities to become entrepreneur-ready. Creative Economic Development Consulting retooled and relaunched the…
After 19 months of work, Cleveland County was officially designated a Certified Entrepreneurial Community on Thursday. Creative EDC oversees the Certified Entrepreneurial Community program, which is an aggressive economic development program aimed at advancing entrepreneurial ecosystems on a…
I borrowed most of this from Don Macke’s 10 Keys to Local Success (with related thoughts from me). First key is Local Responsibility. There are federal, state and private resources and initiatives that can be most helpful but the decision to act or not act on economic development rests with…
Creative Economic Development Consulting is pleased to announce that it has purchased the nationally recognized Certified Entrepreneurial Community® program developed by AdvantageWest Economic Development Group. Plans are underway to revamp the program and make it available to communities that…
Abbeville County, SC, (pop. 25,000) is a small, rural county without an interstate. What Abbeville County does have is a creative and innovative local economic developer. After being in economic development almost 20 years, I’ll take that over an interstate any day. Abbeville County developer…
We talk about investing in communities, creating a sense of place, revitalizing downtown, redevelopment, and entrepreneurship – and we walk it. Creative EDC was formed in 2012 and headquartered in Elkin, NC, hometown of Crystal Morphis. We didn’t locate here because Elkin is the center…
If you don’t have a social media strategy, it will fail as a marketing tool. “Social media isn’t a toolbox of silver bullets given to us by aliens, it’s just a new set of technologies and concepts that we need to integrate into our existing marketing strategy” (Lon Safko). As with any marketing…