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Business Owner Tells Visioning Session Why He Picked Galesburg
A Galesburg businessman says he almost went somewhere else when figuring where to start a business 30 years ago.

Business attraction and retention was the focus of Thursday night's Galesburg Community Visioning session, and a panelist was Jim Hankes, owner of Thrushwood Farms. Hankes says he and his wife looked at three different areas of the state, and ultimately chose Galesburg because of, at the time, low electricity rates, good water, and a good supply of raw materials.

Hankes says those things, and a number of other factors that eventually won out, are things that every business owner, large or small, must think about. "We didn't realize how things would change in the last three-decades -- maybe not for the better, because we've taken a lot lumps as far as businesses go," Hankes said. "However, we factored in a lot of those things that the big corporations do, just for a small family business. And I think in order to draw people here, we need to be cognizant of all those items."

Hankes says one of the areas of business development that's getting a greater focus, niche marketing, seems to have worked well for him.

He and other panelists suggested to "go for it" if you're looking to start a small business, but be sure to put together a business plan, know what you can do, and know what you'll need to give to someone else to do.

CLICK HERE to download audio from the latest visioning session.


(Panelists at Thursday night's session are, from left to right: Joe Mangieri, Business & Technology Center Board Liaison to GREDA; Dennis Case, Galesburg Business Association President; Terry Cavanaugh, WGIL, Moderator; Carrie McKillip, Extensiuon Unit Educator - Community and Economic Development, Knox County University of Illinois Extension; Cat Garza, Manager, Western Illinois Entrepreneurship Center; Jim Hankes, owner, Thrushwood Farms. WGIL News Story and Photo by Will Stevenson.)
03 26 09 by Newsroom
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