Several years ago, a lady in Natchez had the idea of baking a cake inside a jar. We’re pretty certain at least a couple of relatives and friends probably scoffed at the idea.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of cakes later, the business was a success. The business eventually changed hands, and apparently closed, but locals still talk about the Natchez-born entrepreneur.

A few years later, a couple of local good-old boys wanted to get themselves deeper into the woods, quietly, so they could have better success hunting. Soon after, the first Bad Boy Buggy quietly rolled to life. The business grew into a multi-million dollar, national brand.

Both of those businesses are examples of local people who simply had an idea and turned that into a successful business.

Look around our area and you’ll see dozens more homegrown businesses dotting the economic landscape.

Each of those businesses is vital part of our economy. From the taxes they pay to the employees they support, their impact is huge.

Economic developers will tell you that truly growing the economy is often best done through fostering growth among existing businesses and encouraging new businesses to get started.

Lots of resources exist to help would-be entrepreneurs, but few people know about them. Perhaps our community should have an “entrepreneur” event to listen to a few of those crazy ideas. Today’s seemingly silly idea could be a huge jobs generator of tomorrow.