Several discussions about starting small businesses have been happening here-and-there in the area recently, and I'd like to encapsulate some of those here. I would also like to expand that discussion here with the readers' help and suggestions.

First, it's a common misconception that economic growth has to come at the price of disrupting the rural environment here. Many businesses simply better utilize the resources and assets we have here now as a community with little to no change to our way of life, save more organization, better planning, and added income.

Take a wooded area of several acres. We do not necessarily have to bulldoze the scenery to develop it economically. For example, one business that has become popular across the United States is fee-based hunting and fishing.

With a little organization, a website, brochure, lease, some liability insurance, and maybe even a small cabin or two, you can transform a woodland area producing no income into a sought-after hunting destination.

Along similar lines, a well-stocked lake with a family-friendly aspect could become a great place for children of city slickers to catch their first fish. It also becomes a fun, fee-based recreational business for a Greene County property owner.

Corn mazes, U-pick farms, roadside produce stands, farmer's markets, specialty food growers, paint ball courses, and rural retreat centers are also ideas.

But here is where the readers' suggestions will help the local area. What other ideas do YOU have, using local assets, resources, and talent? And what needs are not currently being met, which force you to shop elsewhere?