Rural County Business
We are a family owned business, located in my rural hometown of Morgan, Utah. I am the CEO and Founder of DynaGrace Enterprises and my daughter, Jennifer Remund, is the Vice President. We have been in business since 2006 and have been located in an office in Morgan County for at least half that time. The County has less than 10,000 people in the population count.
I was born and raised in Morgan, Utah. I am a native, rural county, Utah girl. In Morgan, Utah it is difficult to find diversity, and even more difficult to be different. Morgan is a small, predominately Mormon, town, in which there are certain expectations of the role of a woman. Men are regarded very highly in the Mormon religion. There is an unspoken expectation for Women in the Mormon religion to be a homemaker, handling all of the responsibilities of taking care of a loving home.
Living in a small town for most of my life, I was expected to follow into the traditional role of a woman. I had a very progressive mother. She introduced me to ant farms, chemistry sets, and entomology. She also made sure I had music lessons and was involved in sports. I had a well-rounded childhood where I was allowed to take risk and learn science.
As I became older, I already understood what was “acceptable behavior” and the tasks and responsibilities for girls, which did not include owning my own business. It was not socially acceptable where I lived for girls to have technical skills or design anything that was not fashionable. Becoming a software engineer was not socially acceptable to my town, or the business world. My mother never really understood why I wanted to own my own business and wasn’t happy working at the Air Force Base as a civilian.
Recently, we were glad to see the Chamber of Commerce get bigger and better. For a few years, we were not even sure there was a Chamber. Another bright note is the Davis Business Center, in particular, Joey Hardy, of the Northfront Business Resource Center, makes sure there is a meeting every month for Women in Business. I think that is super progressive.
Rural areas and small towns have particular challenges for a business owner. The price of goods and services must be adjusted based upon lower costs of living. Location can be a challenge, and more co-working spaces in bigger cities are being formed to serve rural communities. I am associated with AccessSaltLake to meet with clients if the need arises.
My friend Joel Smith has a company called AccelerantBSP whose mission is to create local jobs and train rural residents for the specific skill sets urban employers need in tech, information, sales, marketing and professional service sectors. I love his energy surrounding creating more jobs in rural communities, like Morgan.
You can succeed at being an entrepreneur by being from a rural community. It just takes dedication, drive, and an unsurpassed work ethic.
Join Morgan County as being the first stop for the World Trade Center of Utah’s “25K Jobs in 25 Counties” event held on May 31, 2017. You can find out about the event on Facebook. In addition to the World Trade Center of Utah, the event is co-hosted by Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR), Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, EDCUtah, and the Salt Lake Chamber.
Let’s create jobs in rural counties in Utah.
#RUT25K #UrbalRemedy #urban #rural #country #coworking #accelerantbsp #accesssaltlake #dobizbetter