In July 2003, one of those Mississippi disasters happened, but not the Katrina kind.
The International Paper plant employing 640 people in Natchez, MS closed, laying off 640 employees.
Ripple effects in the community caused more to lose their jobs, inlcuding truckers, loggers, and other small businesses. The real total loss was probably closer to 800 or 1000.
Even worse, the incomes to be replaced were high… often $50,000 per year (with overtime) for folks with a high school education.
And if you see the map of Natchez, there were not other industries to “pick up the slack”.
After 6 months of hard job hunting, hundreds still were without work and no jobs on the horizon.
So the State of Mississippi started helping people start their own businesses, often home based.
Working with a local community college to provide a short term curriculum, they taught interested people (about 400 potential business owners) about starting a business, selling to the government, customer service, marketing and accounting.
Upon receiving a certificate of completion they were given help with their business plan.
Participants who made it this far and still wanted help were eligible for up to $2,000 in assistance for tools, equipment, supplies, and other business start up expenses.
400 people received some kind of help.
Nearly 200 businesses were actually started doing work in the following fields: printing, locksmith, lawn care, catering, towing, woodworking, farming, accounting, knifemaking, painting, restaurant, baking, electrical contracting, heating and air conditioning repair, taxidermy, rabbit farming, motorcyle sales and repair, porcelain refinishing and others.
The average cost to create new jobs was well under $4,000 per job.
That compares with the the cost of attracting a corporate headquaters to a city that may cost $50,000 per job!
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