What does the
Local Business Institute do?
Part think tank, part school, part national leadership, part training ground for local leadership, the Institute is home to local leaders from across the country. Through online and on-demand programs, special projects, distance learning, virtual and live conferences, lectures and events, we work to foster local, national and even global conversations around entrepreneurship and local economies. We bring substantial resources to entrepreneurs of all ages and stages.
Get involved!
Take the Live Local Pledge
Join the LocalFirst Community
Take essential training with a Business Bundle on the LBI Virtual Campus
At the Local Business Institute, we don’t talk about business as B to B or B to C. We talk about small, local business as H2H—Human to Human—because all small business is humans helping other humans. It’s why we all do what we do.
Our belief in local business goes even deeper. Read more.
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
Completed Projects
Programs
A Small Bakery, a Big Heart: Finding Comfort in Community
SERIES: More Than a Transaction • 4 of 6 Dear readers,You may have noticed I’ve been absent and you haven’t received the Power of Local blog in three months. I took a leave of absence when I lost my son in an auto accident in late April. It’s taken a bit to pull...
Your Neighbors’ Health and Your Business Are Connected
SERIES: More Than a Transaction • 3 of 6 Researchers at Stanford's Graduate School of Business went into Roxbury, Massachusetts—a historically Black community with a substantial Latinx population—to understand what local business owners were actually doing. What they...
Business That Holds Towns Together
SERIES: More Than a Transaction • 2 of 5 The Third Place Framework There's a reason people linger at your counter longer than they need to, and it's not really about the coffee or the books or the hardware. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg spent his career studying what he...
Where Community Actually Happens
SERIES: More Than a Transaction • 1 of 5 If you've run a local business for any length of time, you already know that what you do reaches further than your books will ever show. You've watched your place become somewhere a neighborhood actually happens—where people...
Buzz Into Spring with this Social Media Campaign
Free 'Buzz Into Spring' social media campaign for you Spring is coming, I'm sure of it! As you schedule your social medis, be sure to include a few shop local messages. One of the ways the Local Business Institute works for you is providing social media campaigns...
The Gorilla Every Entrepreneur Knows, But Nobody Talks About
Entrepreneurship isn’t easy. There are days when we soar and days when we struggle. This applies to EVERYONE. It’s easy when you’re struggling to think no one else is sharing your struggle. They all look like they are succeeding wildly and with ease. But it isn’t so....
