Growing Local Value: How to Build Business Partnerships That Strengthen Your Community (Social Venture Network)

Another wonderful title in Berrett-Koehler's Social Venture Network series, Growing Local Value profiles a number of successful companies who see themselves as partners with their communities--and shows how these businesses can market successfully by distinguishing themselves from faceless corporate competition. Examples: An independent bookseller in Utah who says, "the real pleasure in bookselling comes in pairing the right book with the right person", a San Francisco chain of boutique hotels, restaurants and day spas where each unit provides a completely different experience, and where a "hotel matchmaker" channels guests into the facility that best matches their tastes: concerning itself with "creating wonderful dreams" rather than providing a mere place to sleep, a large bakery that provides jobs to people formerly seen as unemployable (and got the contract to supply Ben & Jerry's, probably as a direct result of this social commitment), and does so in such a way that the company is protected, and the employees can get away from the poverty, prison, and drug problems of their pasts, a garden supply company that helped revitalize the blighted neighborhood it called home.

All of these, and most of the other numerous examples in the book, were good for the community AND highly profitable.

Different chapters look at
* Putting the customer and community first
* Financing without compromising values
* Making employees into partners
* Partnering with other local businesses, government entities, and nonprofits (separate chapters)
* My favorite chapter, on turning sustainable principles into competitive advantages

This book is not a passive read. If your are a local business owner or you're thinking of starting a local business, this book will help you go through the challenging aspects that every business owner should consider. Within the chapters are general ideas of how to best achieve your goals in the different areas of business ownership. Also provided are numerous examples of actual accounts from businesses trying different strategies and how it turned out for them - the good and the bad. I highly suggest this book as it will have you thinking about all the solutions available to helping your business thrive in a very community-friendly kind of way.

An excellent and valuable guide for anyone who wants to start a local business, or for those of us who are looking for ways to bring homegrown businesses back to our neighborhoods. Using examples of successful entrepreneurs, including, thankfully, minority entrepreneurs, Mr. Hammel and Mr. Denhart provide step-by-step instructions on how we can bring back and sustain community enterprises or, at the very least, compete successfully alongside the cookie-cutter companies that are ripping the heart out of our cities and towns.