What fair?

It's the middle of the weekend and I just happened to see a small sign promoting this fair at lunchtime today.

Does anyone know anything or am I just the last to know?  ;-)

From the meta description:  "The Dunwoody festival & Fair is a Community Festival that celebrates the History and heritage of the City of Dunwoody."

http://www.dunwoodyfestivalandfair.com/

City Hall is Invested in Dunwoody Businesses - This Means YOU!

From this week's Crier:

Attention all 2,400 Dunwoody businesses—-the city of Dunwoody feels you are vital to the community and wants to foster your continued growth and success.
And, to help ensure local business owners and corporate leaders understand their importance to the city, Dunwoody’s economic development office recently launched a business retention “listening tour” to, in the words of one city official, “make sure businesses that call Dunwoody home are happy.”

Entire article online here.

Who are "Dunwoody businesses"?

According to City Hall's own statistics, almost 80% of these have 10 employees or fewer.  The most current numbers available indicate almost 400 of them are home-based.  (That we are sure of - many home business owners hide.  Some are deliberately trying to skirt the law.  Others feel their enterprise is so small it's not worth the effort to do the licensing paperwork at City Hall.)  That factors out to between 15-20% of your business community;  a huge amount.

It is in City Hall's best interest to pay attention to the small, local, family-owned, and home-based operations as much as if not more than the large corporations.

Why?

Because the overwhelming majority of these small business owners are Dunwoody residents.

They are businesses that can VOTE.

It wouldn't be wise to piss them off to the point they decide to vote as a block.

Contrary to the NIMBY party line, there is almost no deliniation between a business owner and a homeowner in Dunwoody.  They are not separate feudal kingdoms, eternally at war, with an alligator-stocked moat between them.  Dunwoody business owners are not out to ravage their neighborhoods (you know - the ones they LIVE in....) and transform them into polluted wastelands.  They're your neighbors.  Like 'em or not, they are the people who walk their dogs and jog and play tennis at the local club.  They're the people you buy products from.  Or who provide services in your home.  It amazes me that the occasional NIMBY uprising at some DHA meetings is so short-sighted they would alienate people they live with just for being a business owner.

But Michael Starling's office and City Hall for that matter aren't going to get drowned out by NIMBYs.  I believe that the meetings being proposed are a safe haven for business owners to say what they think without being subjected to a "Lord of the Flies" scenario by an angry, mindless mob driven by fears whispered in their ears.

No matter how large or small your operation is...  whether you work in Dunwoody Village, Georgetown, Perimeter, or at home - the invitation is out for YOU.  Take advantage of it.  Call Starling's office, make an appointment to visit, and say what's on your mind.  This is not speaking in public, so you're not going to make yourself a target by standing up for yourself, your employees, your colleagues, and your customers.

As a business owner if you want your rights defined and defended, the welcome mat is out and the next move is yours.

Mr. Starling - please check your voicemail.  I left a message for you.

What's Cooking in the Incubator?

At the State of the City address in 2012, Mike included as part of his speech the intention to form a "business incubator".

Sounds good on the surface.  With the business community paying the majority of taxes and fees to the City, and a high number of entrepreneurs creating their own jobs, who doesn't want to develop small businesses and help them reach their potential?

I wish I could say there has been progress on this, but the fact is no one knows for sure.   All inquiries into this project - including from people who have worked in these endeavors before and have experience - have gone unanswered.

No one has defined what this "incubator" is specifically going to accomplish, what business sectors are going to be targeted, what time frames are for goals, and especially - where is the money going to come from and how much.

The following commentary regarding business incubators is from a TechCrunch blog.  It specifically discusses IT business incubators but I believe the points can be expanded to any business field.

It's important because there is a perception that money is getting thrown around like confetti on non-priorities  with no reason or end in sight.  The last thing the City needs is an ultra-high-risk project with no definitions corralling it and no information distributed.

90% Of Incubators And Accelerators Will Fail And That’s Just Fine For America And The World

Key excerpts below.  Entire article in the link above.

I would like to present the claim that 90 percent of incubators will fail. By “failing,” I mean they don’t return (or don’t exceed) the money that was put into them. On what basis do I make my claim? Well, the hundreds of incubators are really startups, and the oft-cited rule of thumb is that 9 out of 10 startups fail.\ 

Is there any reason why incubators would be different from other startup spaces? Just as we’ve seen with daily deals, mobile apps and games, it’s clear only a few (maybe four or five) will become leaders in the category. The rest will absorb more capital than they can return, shut down, or pivot into something else. 

1. Too Many Companies, Too Little Mentorship
2. No Clear Funding Path After The “Program”
3.  Lack Of Business Development Resources

So - what exactly is the status of Dunwoody's proposed "incubator"?