Economic Gardening - Ever Heard Of It?

Next week I will attend a retreat to get the training required to become a Certified Economic Gardener.

Based upon the core belief that only entrepreneurs create jobs and drive economies, Economic Gardening takes an entrepreneurial approach to regional prosperity. Often referred to as a “grow from within” strategy, it helps existing companies within a community grow larger. In contrast to traditional business assistance, economic gardening focuses on strategic growth challenges, such as developing new markets, refining business models and gaining access to competitive intelligence. Economic gardening specialists help CEOs identify which issues are hindering their growth and then leverage sophisticated tools to deliver insights and information that CEOs can apply immediately.

I've been working for the past two weeks to prepare for the training while getting more excited about the program every day. I hope to get certified and eventually place on a team that is helping second stage companies grow and succeed. I'm guessing I'll be writing more about this in the future.