Challenges building a business database

That’s the conclusion of Ilana Preuss, who is founder and CEO of Recast City and who believes that the way to bring back America’s Main Streets, downtowns, and local economies is through small-scale manufacturing. While traditional economic development focuses on what Preuss calls big-game hunting--recruiting big, established companies--she favors looking for ways to support even the smallest of businesses. How can a community do that? Step one, she says, is to find local manufacturers, talk to them, and find out what they need. Go figure!