Late this February, I made the leap and started my own business. I’m now self-employed full-time offering search marketing consulting as Evident.
Starting a new business, even just a one-person operation like mine, takes a lot of time, but one of my motivations to go out on my own was to have more flexibility with my schedule and to be able to get out of the office more often. Here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, there’s so much to do and see, and I don’t want to miss it because I’m cooped up.
I’m always trying to keep more of my money local when I shop, and the “For Locals” section of LancasterPA.com has become a trusted source for me. I often forget how many things to do there are in our county, and not just for tourists. Maybe this year will be the year I get out to some Lancaster County mud sales.
For getting outdoors, my go-to spots are the Trout Run nature preserve (south from the city) and Money Rocks County Park (northeast from the city). Speedwell Forge Lake was drained five years ago, but last year they filled it up and stocked it with a lot of fish (it’s all catch-and-release until the populations get established), so I’m itching to take my fly rod up there and check it out.
I’m not really crazy about spending a day at the pool, but sometimes it beats staying inside in the air conditioning. The public Conestoga Pines Pool is a gem for the city, and I’ve found the Lampeter-Strasburg YMCA outdoor pool has been less crowded than I would have expected.
What am I missing out on? What are your favorite things to do in the area? Let me know in the comments.
New data out today from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that Lancaster County’s population officially topped the half-million mark last year. The county grew by 4,415 between July 2007 and July 2008, bumping it from 497,955 residents in 2007 to 502,370 in 2008. The increase is 0.9 percent in one year.
From 2000 to 2008, Lancaster County has grown 6.7 percent. During that time period, Chester (13.4 percent) and York (11.2 percent) were the only Pennsylvania counties to grow faster.
Lancaster’s growth rate this decade has been higher than predicted. The Pennsylvania State Data Center projected Lancaster County’s 2010 population would be just 498,465. New data certainly calls into question the Data Center’s projections for Lancaster County in 2020 (pop. 526,194) and 2030 (pop. 553,293). Is it possible that the county will top 600,000 in the next decade? Sources: The Pennsylvania State Data Center (pdf) and the U.S. Census Bureau
Twelve of us had a second successful breakfast tweetup this morning at Prince Street Cafe. Thanks for reading about it on this Lancaster PA blog!
Lancaster, PA tweetups are on a roll
The twelve of us were Jeff Geoghan, Kate Peteritas, Jeremy Walter, Bryan Coe, Jeff Rumm, Chad Hamilton, Shanelle Lee, Max Phillips, Paul Stoltzfus, Ryan Shen-Hoover, Joel Walker, and myself. We all made it out at 7 a.m. or so for some breakfast, coffee, and conversation.
For me, it was the first time I met Chad, Bryan, and Ryan in real life. We’ve been following each other on Twitter and Facebook for several months, so it’s great to bring it full circle with a little face-to-face time. Good guys, all three of them. Chad was officially the youngest adult at the tweetup. He’s a student at Manheim Township High School and spends part of his time studying graphic design at the Lancaster County Career & Technology Center.
This is the fifth successful tweetup we have now had in Lancaster since we began six months ago:
Apple store opening at Park City mall – Sept. 20
Paul Rothrock’s birthday pub crawl down Plum Street – Sept. 27
Ice skating and chilling in the skybox at Clipper Magazine Stadium – Jan. 23
Breakfast tweetup No. 1 – Feb. 24
Breakfast tweetup No. 2 – March 11
There were other attempts, but I haven’t verified that any of them were well-attended enough to be considered bona fide tweetups. (Please fill us in if I missed any.)
To get the scoop upcoming tweetups, keep an eye on the Lancaster PA Tweetups group on Facebook. Planned get-togethers include lunch, late-night diner run, Saturday morning coffee, and who knows what else.
A couple people suggested that we have name tags next time. Paul threatened never to return if we crossed the line into having a sign-in sheet, though. What should we do for our next tweetups?
It answers the question “whom should I follow?” when someone from the area gets on Twitter, and serves as a quick reference for visitors when they’re in the area and are looking for ideas of what to do (or who simply want to rant about our weirdly-named towns).
In 2009, there is a renewed opportunity to tap into something that has been paid less and less attention in recent years: Max Weber’s good old Protestant work ethic. Finding appropriate ways to leverage it constitutes the fourth problem you can solve next year for fun and profit.
No. 4: Lending
Problem: Tight lending and poor investment returns Asset: High levels of personal savings in our region
Credit has dried up. When banks are reticent to loan to each other, what makes you think they’re going to loan to you?
Yet again, there appears to be a viable solution in localizing. While national banks are hurting, local banks in Central PA like Fulton, Union National, and Susquehanna are running strong. Their balance sheets look good (people actually keep money in those banks, as opposed to just borrowing from them), and corporate lending is active.
A profitable way of solving the problem by using the assets at hand may involve local financial institutions. Then again, they may play only a peripheral role.
Make this man proud. Hook up local hard-working folks with interest on their savings by lending to other local hard-working folks.
Here’s the deal: We live in an area where personal savings rates are high. People are earning precious little interest on those savings. The fact that other people need to borrow money isn’t a problem, it’s a huge local opportunity.
As of 2007 (the most recent year that data is available for from the Bureau of Labor Statistics), residents of the Northeast U.S. save, on average, 6.6% more of their income than residents of the rest of the U.S. Here in the Northeast the average household puts 23.5% of its annual income ($15,816) into savings, as opposed to 16.5% in the Midwest, 19.1% in the South, and 15.0% in the West.
It’s worth noting that in the Northeast, an average of $1,730 (9.2%) of household income came from investments (including interest, dividends, and rental/property income).
OK, so narrowing it down to the Northeast is cool and all, but how can I say the strength of this asset (personal savings) is particularly high in Central PA? Here, I have to rely on the same rationale Forbes used when they named Lancaster the tenth best city in which to ride out the recession: the equity people have in their homes.
As of September, according to Zillow real estate market reports, Lancaster County homeowners who made their purchase in the past five years have a median equity of $40,000 in their homes. That’s 30% of their home’s value.
Compare that with the median equity held in nearby Philadelphia (26%) or Baltimore (23%). In Boston, which edged us out in the Forbes list, it’s 21%. To see how bad it gets, observe the staggeringly negative 20% in Stockton, CA.
What’s more, in Lancaster, homes have only declined 4.9% in value since their peak (which was in the second quarter of 2007), versus 6.4% in Philadelphia, 10.2% in Baltimore, 16.6% in Boston, and 49.0% in Stockton. Elsewhere in Central PA, State College is rocking—where prices still haven’t peaked—and York-Hanover isn’t doing too poorly—home values there are down 10.7% from their peak.
With that evidence, the opportunity here is obvious: people in our area have savings. The savings are real, too—they’re not about to burst in a housing bubble or a Madoff Ponzi scheme. But the savings aren’t earning much interest. And if those savings could benefit the local economy while earning at least decent returns, that’s even more attractive. We have talented and resourceful individuals and entrepreneurs who could use some loaned capital. Put two and two together, and make a profit off this. Ready? Go.