Billye Carter

Volunteering helps the cause, and it can help you, too

One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served. –Gordon B. Hinckley Recent research confirms the personal benefits of volunteering and many public and private schools are now including community service in graduation requirements. Volunteering time and talent creates connection to …

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Becoming Entrepreneur-Ready

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 Certified Entrepreneurial Community® program in the fall of …

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6 Tips to Make Your Next Retreat a Success

Why do EDOs, local governments, companies, and nonprofits have planning retreats? To spend focused time on their business plan. Every organization needs to spend quality time reviewing success, adjusting priorities and strategies, and charting a course for the next years. Planning retreats are top of mind at Creative EDC since we recently facilitated three very …

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CreativeSiteAssessment.com Supports Infrastructure Grants Program

In December 2016, Golden LEAF awarded $25M in grants to seven large sites in North Carolina. CreativeSiteAssessment.com was one of the evaluation tools used by Golden LEAF to assess sites applying for grant funds. The sites met a standard set of criteria, including public ownership or public control of a site that is at least …

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Defining Success in Business Retention & Expansion

Economic development organizations track a wide range of metrics from leads to BRE visits to business start-ups and beyond. However, does the time invested in measuring specific data points pay off in future success? An article in Community Development authored by Dr. Jonathan Morgan, Associate Professor of Public Administration and Government at the University of …

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NC Economic Development Salary Survey Released

This week, the North Carolina Economic Development Association (NCEDA) and Creative Economic Development Consulting released the first state-wide salary and compensation survey for the economic development community in North Carolina. Creative Economic Development Consulting partnered with NCEDA to administer and publish the survey. It was designed to sync with the International Economic Development Council’s Salary …

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WEDN 2017 Sparks Excitement

Getting comfortable, connected and confident is what our second Women’s Economic Development Network Leadership Forum was all about. Presenters and participants fostered an atmosphere filled with energy that helped to SPARK excitement about networking and future opportunities. The conference began with a topic everyone stresses over, social media. Colleen Walton with Brand Acceleration presented the …

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Do You Want to Build a Military Friendly Community?

Does your community have a strong military presence? Do you have talented military spouses, dependents, and veterans seeking local employment but struggling to find an existing business with the right employment opportunities?  The 2016 Creative Give Back Project developed a concise action plan to raise awareness in the business community about the benefits of hiring former …

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A Collaborative Culture & Entrepreneurial Champions: The CEC® Program in Cleveland County, NC

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 CEC® Program in 2015. For background on the CEC® Program visit www.creativecec.com. As our team wraps up the …

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Measuring Value and Impacts to Advance Your Community’s Agenda

Community economic development strategies and priorities are really choices, communities expressing hopes and values through tactics and resource allocation for economic development. In times of competing priorities and multiple stakeholder perspectives it is more important than ever to articulate value in terms that are meaningful to the audience. When economic developers want to communicate value …

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