Legal Issues Impacting Your Business
The ISBA’s Economic Development Committee has taken several steps recently to make it easier for Iowa lawyers to become more involved in boosting the state’s economy, particularly in rural areas.
In cooperation with the Iowa Department of Economic Development, the committee has begun developing an interactive webpage that will attempt to catalog and describe the programs available. The website (http://www.iowabar.org/Committees/Economic.nsf) is expected to be completed soon. We encourage you to participate in its bulletin board feature.
The committee will also sponsor a regular column on economic development in the Iowa Lawyer magazine. Finally, it will examine programs, take legislative positions it deems are beneficial to economic development in the state as a whole, and continue to have programs on economic development in connection with other bar association programs.
Iowa’s metropolitan areas are doing well; Des Moines was recently named 26th in the nation for economic development and Cedar Rapids was in the Top 100. Our rural communities are doing pretty well economically, but are losing population. In fact, one of the key problems we have as a State is the shortage of workforce. We have focused on finding jobs for people; now, we need to find people for jobs.
Some factors are relevant in the discussion of moving Economic Development forward. First, Iowa ranks 49th in the nation for business start-ups, yet is one of the top five states for business continuity. Approximately 1/3 of Iowa business owners are over age 55 and one-tenth of owners are over age 65. Notably, the average age of farmers in Iowa is 59 ½ years old.
Next, employees are more mobile than ever before. More than one out of two workers today in the United States have worked for their employer less than five years.
Finally, foreign corporations employ one-third of the people in Iowa working in manufacturing. In 2002, eight percent of the leads received by the Iowa Department of Economic Development were from foreign companies. In 2007, thirty-three percent of the leads have been from foreign corporations.
We have to hold onto the businesses in Iowa. If you look at the percentage of businesses owned by someone over 65, and the average age of farmers, we must focus on succession planning.
Communities have a real interest in succession planning, as does the owner’s family. The lawyer should take the lead role in that early succession planning.
A widow seeking to sell her husband’s business recently placed an ad in the Wall Street Journal. That’s not the way to do it. Selling a business that way minimizes assets to the family and leaves the community with very little opportunity to hold onto that business.
Communities must build their workforce by making them a desirable place to work and play. A majority of Iowa’s college graduates leave for other states. We need to retain these individuals and recruit to Iowa from other states.
Iowa has always been a welcoming state for immigrants. In Storm Lake and Denison, sixty percent of the children in school are non-traditional students. Those communities are prospering.
Immigrants provide opportunity for our state. I was approached by a group of Southeast Asian business leaders not long ago wanting to start a bank with branches in cities with high percentages of Southeast Asians.
We need to be relentless talent scouts, set the stage for innovation and change, and aim toward value creation and entrepreneurship. Increasingly, communities are thinking regionally as we are competing globally, not with the neighboring town.
Agriculture is a great strength in Iowa. Consequently, value-added agriculture is certainly a good approach for some of our small communities.
Rembrandt, in Northwest Iowa, has a new $20 Million expansion to its egg-laying complex. There are five dairy farms recently started in Iowa as a result of a project to attract Dutch dairy farmers to Iowa in a joint venture between the Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa State University Extension. Three of the dairy farms are in Butler, one in Poweshiek and one in Pocahontas County. The dairy farms in Butler have now attracted a cheese factory, which will also come from the Netherlands. A Clarinda-based processor or organic dairy products will ask to have its shares listed on a German stock exchange. The Dutch National Extension Service estimates over the next decade, 7,000 Dutch dairy farmers will resettle. If you are interested in learning more about the Dutch dairy project, talk to Tom Lawler, a member of our Committee, Lori Chesser or look to our Bar website. There is a never-ending need for food and value-added agriculture builds on our strengths. So, think value-added agriculture for future success.
While there are a number of federal, state and local programs aimed at assisting companies and communities in their desire to grow and prosper, it is often difficult to identify and navigate through these programs. To ease that process, our Economic Development Committee, in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Economic Development, has begun the development of an interactive webpage that will attempt to catalog and describe these programs (http://www.iowabar.org/Committees/Economic.nsf) We expect it to be completed soon and encourage you to participate in its bulletin board feature.
Your Economic Development Committee will also sponsor a regular column on economic development in the Bar magazine. Finally, the Committee will examine programs, take legislative positions it deems are beneficial to the economic development of the State as a whole, and continue to have programs on economic development in connection with other Bar Association programs.
Many of the members of the Bar Association are already deeply involved in this area and serve on local economic development commissions. We also welcome every lawyer’s input; if there is a program that should be in the material on our website and it is not listed or if there is something we should be doing, we would very much appreciate it if you would let us know. The committee members listed on the Bar website are committed to our State’s economy and would be happy to hear from you.
(John D. Shors, Chair, ISBA Economic Development Committee)
