Lone Eagles and High Fliers in Archuleta County
In 2008, AEDA completed a Targeted Industry study to identify key industries to focus on expanding and attracting to Archuleta County. The AEDA Targeted Industry Committee, which encompassed community leaders and AEDA Board Members, spent 18 months going through our local industry data. In the end, they identified 7 key industries that would help diversify and move our economy forward, as well as provide jobs that were much higher in salary than our current average. Another key finding was that many of these companies fit a certain profile known as Lone Eagles and High Fliers.
What exactly is a “Lone Eagle”? It is a sole proprietor business who derives the majority of their revenue from outside the County. They have 0 employees, and are located in rural areas for quality-of-life reasons. They are typically founded by highly educated people who have “niche” market business concepts that pay off in relatively high sales per worker. In Archuleta County, these are typically companies that are high tech in nature, are in light manufacturing, or provide professional services.
What is a High Flier? A High Flier is a just like a Lone Eagle with the exception that they have 1-20 employees, and those employees are paid at an average salary of at least 110% higher than the County’s current per capita income.
Why is this important? The AEDA assists ALL business owners in the County (retail, services, industrial, etc…) by providing business advocacy, confidential mentoring services, business classes and much more. If we focus more on Lone Eagles and High Fliers, these companies will bring NEW money from the outside into the local economy, which will grow and enable all the other facets of our economy as jobs are created. Because a Lone Eagle’s market is much larger, they have the capability of expanding much faster than a business with just a local market.
This allows the Lone Eagle (if provided with the right business environment) to expand quickly and hire employees. It is then that the Lone Eagle moves to being called a High Flier. What’s unique is that we find the salaries that a High Flier company provides in Archuleta County is 140% higher than the average wage, giving our community the ability to have a livable wage. If we focus on this category of business owner, and then try to attract, create locally and/or expand these types of businesses that are in the key industries we feel can grow here, then you’ve got the ability help your community have a great quality of life. And that is exactly what the AEDA is in place to do. What are those key industries? See below.
Targeted Industries – Through this year and a half study, the AEDA and its community volunteers found 7 key industries that should be focused on to help diversify our economy, and provide livable wages for our community:
- Aviation – includes aircraft maintenance and repair, upgrade/retrofit, sub-assembly, commuter charter services, and other aircraft services. Our airport is an incredible asset to this community, and will continue to be an even greater asset as we move forward with growing this important industry in Archuleta County.
- Renewable Energy – Nothing could be more important to diversify our economy than this industry. Opportunity abounds in our area for solar, bio-fuels, and geothermal applications.
- Back Office Operations - Businesses that do customer service related back-office activities such as call centers, etc.
- Light Manufacturing - Includes all forms of manufacturing small goods that our local transportation system can handle efficiently.
- Professional Services - these are businesses such as consultants, that provide a service. Marketing services, business services, etc.
- Health & Wellness - Businesses that would support the Pagosa Mountain Hospital, provide medical services, organic food products, homeopathic or nutritional products and services, etc.
- High Tech/Information Technology - companies that produce software, internet/ecommerce related, R&D, etc.
These business sectors have already seen job growth in Archuleta County. This Forum will be featuring a variety of local Lone Eagles/High Fliers over the coming months. Stay tuned!
If you are interested in getting involved in this process, please contact AEDA!
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