Building a strong local economy is a real passion of mine.  Time and time again I see evidence that if you want to sell your product in a local market, you have to shop there first.

This was the theme of my presentation at Rainmakers last month. ( I just got the video links) . The video is in two parts and it contains a serious call to support local businesses.

With this local focus in mind, I thought I would share just a few of my favorite local restaurants. These are places I would miss if they were gone. . I hope you will consider voting with your dollars this holiday season, paying them a visit, and helping to build a strong local economy.

No links to websites sorry, but more importantly I have listed address so you can check them out yourself.

Ocean World on 86th Street and Ditch. Some of the best and most reasonably priced sushi in town. The food is so good it is easy to overlook the mediocre service. It is usually busy, but not overcrowded at lunch time, 1/2 prices specials on Sunday, and always a long wait on Friday night.

LaPeidad 6524 Cornell Ave – Great, authentic TexMex. Fast friendly service, good food, reasonable price. Nice outdoor dining when the weather permits. When I need a TexMex Fix this is my favorite.

Kona Jack – Meridian and 96th Street – Not to be confused with the Kona Grill chain in Clay Terrace. This Indy tradition has a wonderful, diverse fish menu, and even sells fresh fish for you to take home and prepare yourself. Sharing a kitchen with Daddy Jacks, you can often convince your waitress to serve something off the menu from the other side.

Santorini Greek Kitchen – 1417 Prospect Street, in Fountain Square – Well worth the trip to Fountain Square for the huge portions, home-style Greek food, and great service. It is also the only place in the city that makes Eggplant parmesan the way I like it – I think you will too.

These are just a few of my favorites. What are yours? List them here, and more importantly, pay them a visit this month!

I have spent the last few hours reading some amazing business plans.  The would-be entrepreneurs who submitted the plans are not currently looking for investors or loans.  These are student plans, written by High School students ( juniors and seniors) as part of the Hamilton County Business Alliance Entrepreneurship Education Program.

This is the 3rd year I have been involved in the competition and it is always a treat.  Some of plans are well written and well researched, but aren’t viable businessess.  Others contain a great idea, hidden in a poorly written plan.

And every year, there is at least one, which makes me stop and think someday, I am going to say I knew him/her  when.   This year my favorite plan  is Island Ice Cream.  Simple in concept, easy to execute the business may never be huge, but it will easily be profitable, and if he chooses,  a great way to fund his education.

The writer does not have huge plans for this business, but he has a well thought out model which will create a business on a scale he can manage.  I know a number of adults who could take lessons from him.

The oral part of the competion is Saturday, January 10th. And  can’t wait see if  he is as good selling his ideas in person, as he is on paper.   Do bankers or VC’s get this excited when the read a really good plan?  I hope so!  Our economy needs the plans and people who will be excited to seem them succeed.

This weeks IBJ unveils the latest focus of the Mayor’s scrutiny: The TIF’s (Tax Increment Financing Districts) These districts (many created by republican mayor Stephen Goldsmith) have received tax breaks and loans to create incentives for economic development. Ideally as these areas develop the increased tax revenue will be used to repay the loans.

Does the process work? Fall Creek, the new Airport and Harding Street clearly have seen significant improvements, enhancing the image of the overall city, and their assessed value which means more taxes paid to the city. Two other districts on the NW side of the city have not performed as well. So lets take a look at what works and what doesn’t rather then making an across the board decision that TIFs are bad.

Jennifer Wagner – one of my favorite political writers sums up the situation very well:

But when you’ve been in office for nine months with no vision and no clue, you have to look busy, and reviewing “stuff” and looking into “things” accomplishes that goal. Sadly, the Mayor’s tendency to wave his cheap plastic sword in the air and destroy the nearest forward-thinking idea is costing Indianapolis valuable time and progress as we compete with other cities for new jobs and new blood.

As a marketing professional, I know when business slows down you keep marketing so you are ready for the upswing. it should be the same for economic development! Come on Mayor Ballard, lets try investing in growth instead of cutting back.. the tax revenues will come!

The newest addition to my GoogleReader is HarvardBusiness.org.  The topics of the posts range from politics to leadership strategies in a down economy.  Well written, and thought provoking, I have found myself skipping many of my usual favorites to see what is new here.

Today’s article :Hard Times Demand Teamwork, painted for me the sharp contrast between my life as an entrepreneur and my days in corporate America.

Author Tammy Erickson’s suggestions might seem uncomfortable for the average corporate executive:

Ask great questions. Challenge the organization to meet goals that are intriguing, complex and important.

Build relationships and trust deep in the organization.

Challenge the status quo.

But for those of us who own our business, in a collaborative business community, like Indianapolis, it makes perfect sense!

I’m not your typical blogger. I write on a variety of subjects for different readers and I don’t believe all the information belongs in one place. As a result, I have multiple blogs. Well to be perfectly honest I have one blog, this one, (www.lorraineball.com) and several sites built on a Wordpress platform, where I write and post content for specific niche groups.

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To learn more go to: Inside Indiana Business

have been reading “Deeper Economy” and although author Bill McKibben often goes off on environmental tangents, his comments about building a economic community relate directly to what we are doing in Rainmakers. He argues that the health of communities lies in a decision to buy locally, everything from food to business services.

When we choose to vote with our dollars, and buy services from people we know, we strengthen the community at large. When we buy from national chains, we weaken our local economy.

So here is the challenge: Do you host you web site nationally or locally? Do you meet at Starbucks or Hubbards and Craven? Do you order your flowers from Tel Flora or a local florist. Every day, we make choices with our dollars.

And now, Erik Deckers has made it easier to find your favorite local coffee shop with his new interactive calendar.

Reading the newspapers lately I noticed an interesting phenomenon, with the exception of a few front page articles, there seems to almost no local content in the Indy Star.

With a look reminiscent of USA Today, the majority of articles are coming from a Gannett publication somewhere, with features from the Associated Press, USA Today and the Washington post.

While “News for You” in the regional publications: Star North, etc, provides a place for local businesses to place their own stories, there is a lack of content generated by local, professional writers.

As we try to build the reputation of this city and gain national attention, it is going to be hard to succeed when fewer writers are writing about what is happening here.

I originally posted this comment on Smaller Indiana and it generated quite a bit of discussion.  What do you think?

PROFILE: Roundpeg
Narrowing its focus helped Roundpeg find the right hole Networking also makes a difference for marketing firm

Lorraine Ball is a human energy bar who seems to have more ideas than there are minutes in a day.

She left her job as vice president of creative services for Conseco Inc. in early 2002 to start her own business focusing on team building and strategic planning for large companies—only to discover that in the post-9/11 world, big companies weren’t investing in their people.

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Does your company have information to share with the Indy Business Community? Send a Note to hello@roundpeg.biz and we will add it to IndyBiz

Local small business expert Lorraine Ball will share her favorite strategies on how small business owners can create big impressions on a small budget in a lively, two-hour seminar: “Promotions on a Shoe String.” The seminar will be held from 8:00 – 10:00 am at the Old National Bank located at 4805 E. 96th Street
in Carmel.

More Info

Does your company have information to share with the Indy Business Community? Send a Note to hello@roundpeg.biz and we will add it to IndyBiz