Oklahoma's rural entrepreneurs learn best way to survive

Recently, we were speaking with Becky McCray, an entrepreneur from Alva, OK, who is writing a book on how small town entrepreneurship relates to entrepreneurship in the global economy.

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A recent report based on U.S. Census data reveals that on average and for all but seven years between 1977 and 2005, existing firms lost 1 million net jobs per year. New businesses, on the other hand, added an average of 3 million jobs per year. Without entrepreneurial companies, our country wouldn't have any job growth at all.

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"Every kind of business exists in rural and small town Oklahoma," McCray says. "Ponca City has an attitude and openness to entrepreneurship and is known for recruiting entrepreneurs. Woodward, a town in cowboy country with a long history with energy production, has a major cluster of wind farms. Ditch Witch in Perry makes trenchers and earth moving equipment that are used all over the world."

The rest of the country can learn from the experience of rural and small town entrepreneurs.

For example, since most nonmetro areas aren't home to corporations, small town entrepreneurs are very self-reliant. "As a country, we've finding out that the nation can't rely on corporations for jobs," McCray said.

Small town entrepreneurs also know almost instinctively how to operate with limited resources. "You don't have the option of being overcapitalized," said McCray.

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