By Mike Randle

Atlanta doesn’t need promoting in this magazine right now. Neither do a handful of other major markets in the South. They are ripe with expanding and locating corporate prospects and fast-track projects, fat in cash, high on themselves (and rightly so) and low in labor availability. Because of that, if I get wind of another manufacturer or selected service company paying $8 to $9-an-hour announcing a new location in a major Southern market, I’m going to hurl.

If you think the only suitable markets in the South to set up shop are in Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Charlotte, Houston, and the like, then you need this magazine, in particular, this edition. The American South is a big place. I know. I’ve visited over 1,000 different cities, towns, counties and regions in the South. My research shows that only Hernando Desoto, six members of the Allman Brothers band and a GE light salesman who retired in the 1968 have visited that many Southern markets. Of my visits, slightly over 900 were to small and rural counties and communities.

Officials flying the economic development flag in rural communities in the South have a story to tell you. Many of them have told their story to me and some of those stories are fascinating. Some are depressing and pitiful. Unfortunately, most rural counties don’t have the money in their budgets to tell you their story and why you should consider them for your next expansion or relocation. That’s where this annual edition comes in, which, for the first time, is being published in two parts. The eastern South’s rural areas are profiled in this edition. The western South will be profiled in the spring edition.

After years of publishing it, I’ve never explained to you how our Rural American South edition works. If you look on page 41, you will find a list of sponsors on the Rural American South supplement’s cover page. The sponsors listed have made it possible for rural counties and regions in the eastern South to advertise in this edition at 75 percent off our normal rates (western South sponsors will be listed in the next edition). Those sponsors, all of which are major players in the South, are committed to creating jobs in their rural areas. In other words, with this edition, they are making it affordable for rural communities to tell you their story. Again, because of mere money, the rural South’s story is one that you may not have read.
Yet, by reading some of the stories in this edition as well as the next, you will discover that financial help is on the way in the rural South. Major banking institutions are making significant commitments to the rural South. State governments are making commitments to major banking institutions. Those same state governments are writing and implementing legislation that makes locating in rural regions of the South more profitable, especially at the start of your project, a time when it’s needed the most. In other words, there are many more sources of capital as well as incentives for your project than ever before if you would simply entertain the idea of a rural site in the South for your next expansion.

In the 1970s and 1980s, officials with major markets in the South shared a common marketing theme that they directed to industry leaders located in the Northeast, Midwest and elsewhere. That theme, one that was repeated over and over again was “If you would just come down and see for yourself how far we’ve come, how pro-business we are and how prepared we are for your project, you would be incredibly surprised.” The marketing theme worked. They came. They came in droves. Today, officials with many of the South’s major markets are quietly discussing among themselves, “How do we slow the growth.” State officials are also in on those discussions. Even the feds are involved in slowing growth in the South’s major markets.

In the 1990s and today, at the start of the new millennium, rural areas of the South are uniting ever so slowly in a common marketing theme directed this time to the world’s industry leaders. This one is “If you would just come on down and see for yourself how far we’ve come, how pro-business we are and how more and more of us are prepared for your project, you would be incredibly surprised.” Are you going to take them up on that offer? What about your consultants? Maybe you should pass this edition on to them.

Mike Randle is editor, publisher and owner of Southern Business & Development. You may reach him at 205-733-1970 or by Email at mike@sb-d.com.