Think Local

It's all about community

There is a candy shop in a small Michigan town where the husband and wife owners know the names of nearly everybody who enters their store. And a kite store holds an annual festival that fills the skies with color and streamers along the fresh, breezy lake shore every spring. The owners of a local software firm quietly take a pay cut to avoid laying off a single worker in a tough economy. A childrens resale shop takes a chance on a recently unemployed woman who enters her store looking for an outlet for her hand-knit children's clothes.

i3 Strategies knows that the value of local businesses can never be fully quantified. It can't be reduced to the dollar or a spreadsheet. Local business is essential to the soul of a city. It flavors local cuisine, fuels innovation, adds a cohesive sense of community and continuity to our lives. It keeps jobs and money in the local economy.

It's a critical component to any community in any state. And we're passionate about lending a hand to help anybody strengthen the place they call home.

In Michigan, we see a particularly urgent imperative to support our communities in the midst of the State's catastrophic economic shift. As factories and foundries shut down or move overseas, leaving hundreds of thousands of honest, hardworking men, women, and families without jobs, we see a way of life disappearing before our eyes. A way and quality of life that lasted nearly a century, spanning generations - vanishing.

Now more than ever, it is important for businesses and community leaders to step up and invest in their communities. Lift up one another. Get engaged in the communities. Draw people together. We feel it is our responsibility to do all we can to strengthen our local economies and champion new, emerging industries that bring jobs.

Our roots maybe in Michigan, Maryland, and Virginia, but regardless of where we call home, we recognize that it takes a national effort to help keep our communities strong and proud. Pride and responsbility isn't just a slogan, it's our daily mantra.