Luck Of the City

We are all aware of Wisconsin’s economic climate. For years, Lake Mills’ had been dependent on a very large company to provide the majority of jobs to workers in our city. When that company experienced hard times, the economy of the City changed. Today, we are uniquely positioned because we had been gardening for jobs before we even knew the term. The strategy wasn’t a carefully planned approach to economic development, more a probing for opportunities.
Lake Mills could have been like most cities and put an unusual amount of effort into attracting large manufacturing firms, but the strategy has consistently failed to achieve the hoped-for levels of success. Thus, the economic development strategy of cities has simply not had the focus to cope with the transition from the old economy to the future economy. The city has continued efforts to hunt for large firms, but it hasn’t consumed our efforts because we know how to garden for small local businesses.