Dec 11
5
Michigan Business Network Radio
My journey of trying to tell everyone why Michigan is such a great place to live and work, got a little easier today. I had the privilege of being interviewed today (Monday December 5) for the Michigan in Motion radio show on Michigan Business Network Internet Radio. The host Tiffany Dowling and Taylor Kelsaw, where a blast to talk to, and really shared my passion for Michigan. The interview can be heard on Monday December 5th, at 9am, 2pm, 7pm, and 12am at http://www.michiganbusinessnetwork.com/radio/.
I was so excited to start to talk about the great state of Michigan, I am sure that I forgot some of what I wanted to say, and also due to the short time period they could have me on for, I thought I would expand on some of my thoughts from the show.
IDEAS TO PROMOTE MICHIGAN
The path to recovery for Michigan is going to be through jobs. Michigan has so much to offer it residents but with out jobs there is no reason for anyone to stay in Michigan. Michigan so many advantages for entrepreneurs already. The low cost of living, proximity to higher education that is pumping out some of the best minds in the country, a plethora of existing companies to help mentor and breed start-up. These all make Michigan a great place to start a business. We need more incubators and ways to help entrepreneurs to decrease the stress of starting a company.
Michigan has done an amazing job with the Pure Michigan campaigns. I know that whenever I see one, I get goosebumps. There needs to a campaign that promotes our businesses. It is great to promote our bigger companies that most people already know about, how about the companies that are growing that many people may not know about. The people of Michigan are very supportive of their own, lets help them find companies from Michigan that they can support. It is also important that the bigger companies who already have a national presents, make sure their national customers know they are from Michigan. Chrysler has been doing an amazing job of this with their “Imported from Detroit” campaign.
We can not just depend on our government and big companies to do our PR though. It falls on every single person who lives here. Instead of making Michigan jokes or just staying silent, stand up for Michigan. When you travel make sure you tell people about the amazing things that are going on in Michigan. Send your friends and family that are not lucky enouht to live in Michigan presents from Michigan companies. We as Michiganders are our best PR, lets get to work.
RETENTION OF RESIDENTS
Michigan has two of the best universities in the world for recruiting talent. Michigan State University (39) and University of Michigan (52) according to New York Times. We need to make sure that these students know about the amazing opportunities in Michigan. This needs to start from the day they walk on to campus. We need to breed an Entrepreneurial culture the entire time they are going to school. If a student wants to start a company they should have as much support as possible from the school and the state of Michigan. We need to breed a culture of entrepreneurship. The truth is that company are not going to just move to Michigan, but why not grow the companies here? We also need to do a better job of making sure that our students are exposed to everything that we have to offer.
WHAT CAN YOU DO!
So what does it all come down too? Michigan has a PR problem. It is too easy for the rest of the country to just continue to put down Michigan. There are so many positive things going on in our state, that we need to do a better job getting the information out to the rest of the nation. It is up to all of us to tell the story of Michigan to anyone that will listen. If we have to change the our reputation one person at a time, that is what has to happen.
What are your ideas of how Michigan can attract and retain people to our state. I would love to hear them.
