From anywhere

Local marketing guru says technology defines the new economy

Dan Taylor’s study is the model of clean and simple. A small room separated only by a curtain from the rest of his home, it features a lavish chaiselongue, a simple desk and little else. There’s not much more he needs for his business, after all, that doesn’t fit in his pocket.

On Thursday, Taylor will broadcast his second free marketing seminar, offering his insight and expertise to an audience numbering in the thousands of entrepreneurs worldwide looking to improve marketing for their businesses. His only tool was an iPhone.

Of course, not everything Taylor does is free. He’s doing marketing himself, using low-cost tools and some of his time to engage an audience, some of whom will become clients for his marketing and economic development business.

“Ultimately, it’s for me to help people out and to find new clients, so it’s classic, free trial, and a handful of the people I’m helping for free, a small percentage of those may want to go further,” says Taylor. “My goal is to build a community and fill it with like-minded people, and that other people may have other areas of expertise that might help each other out for free as well.”

That community can come from anywhere in the world. That, says Taylor, is the beauty of the ubiquity of the Internet and online tools like Facebook.

“From my study here, I can service people anywhere in the globe. I don’t have to meet them face-to face—in fact, I can meet them face-to face on Skype. I don’t have to be in the same time zone, I don’t have to know them today,” says Taylor. “I don’t have to call them or find them in the phone book, I don’t have to meet them in a coffee shop. I can meet them online by building my brand and my awareness… That’s kind of where the economy is going.”

Taylor, once the County’s economic development lead, has returned to the County, now in the private sector. When employed by the municipality, Taylor encouraged the growth of a creative rural economy. Now, as an observer, he’s watching that economy grow.

“As an observer right now, I’m seeing that technology is enabling that remote lifestyle. There’s a lady that I know who’s raising a family here in Wellington, and she works in Toronto. She goes there once a week and does the rest from home,” says Taylor.

He points to local business like Yeeboo and Kick-Ass Media, working in the County but with international clients, using the web as the driver of their businesses.

“I’m broadcasting through my iPhone. Last week was my first [workshop], and I had 3,000 people view my [broadcast], and I had 100 meaningful engagements. I think that’s pretty awesome. I don’t have a following. I’m just building that kind of thing,” says Taylor. “As long as … you’ve got some creative ability to reach out, there’s almost no barrier. That’s the fascinating part. You need Internet and an iPhone and an idea and maybe a laptop.”

Taylor says that an attractive setting, combined with the possibilities presented by the advent of high-speed Internet in a place like the County and the relatively inexpensive local housing market means many tech professionals and entrepreneurs who can run their businesses online are attracted to Prince Edward County.

“Deseronto’s not that interesting. Napanee’s not that interesting. There’s a set of circumstances that’s been here for a long time that has been magnified,” says Taylor. “So you’ve got this beautiful, old, rural, ag bucolic that’s authentic. And then you have this new, exciting, really rural-urban experience. Craft beer, chefs, wine—which is kind of rural and kind of urban, but happening here.”

He recognizes that some have been critical of this new economy, and have referred to the shift as a rural gentrification. To them, he’d argue that’s simply the natural evolution of this community.

“The alternative is dilapidation. Prince Edward County is totally being gentrified. It’s pushing affordability out for some people, but it’s breathing new life into the community. So what’s the alternative? There’s no Nirvana. There’s no flat housing prices, $50,000-ayear jobs for everybody and pure affordability.”

For Taylor himself, who moved to the County 15 years ago, this is where his family and his house are, and despite a stint as the head of economic development in Peterborough, he never really left.

“This is home, and I like it here. Yesterday, we went to the beach after work for a 15 minute drive, and I love wine and food and I know a lot of people here and it’s comfortable, comforting.