In the 2004 U.S. Economic Freedom Index, issued by the Pacific Research Institute, Wyoming placed fourth. In the Milken Institute’s annual ranking of top-performing cities and small towns, Casper, Wyo., placed fifth in the small metro category. And in the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council’s 2004 ranking of states that are “small business friendly,” Wyoming was in the top five again.

     That’s a lot of votes for the state some call the Equality State and others call the Cowboy State. And they come at a time when the Wyoming Business Council can take advantage of national trends that find people and their companies fleeing high-density metros on both coasts for the quality of life, security and yes, freedom afforded by the middle of the country.

     That freedom to operate extends through the policies of the Wyoming Business Council. Witness its board’s March 2005 recommendations of $4.8 million in Business Ready Community Grant and Loan Program funds. One grant will extend the water line from the Town of Ranchester just outside town lines, allowing Wyoming Log Home Manufacturing Co. to relocate and expand its manufacturing plant to a larger and more visible site. Another will facilitate the construction of a 60,000-sq.-ft. building on 11.5 acres in the City of Evanston’s Union Center Business Park. The city will lease the building to Everett Graphics, which is relocating from California and hiring 18 people. The city keeps the lease money for economic development purposes.

     Sound free enough to you?

Wide Expanses No Obstacle

     It sounded good to Mark Willis, good enough for him to join WBC in March as the director of its business and industry division, fresh from previous economic development posts in Texas and Oklahoma.

     Sure, Wyoming is a state known for the advantages afforded it by its natural resources, but it’s all the other kinds of resources — work force, technical and facility among them — that will help the state take the next step up in economic development.

     “Wyoming has the right idea in what they’re doing, supporting expansion of infrastructure in the cities first,” he says as he drives between communities in early April. “That’s what you have to have in place before you can recruit.”

     Cost of doing business always leads the way in corporate enticements to Wyoming. Willis said, “All we ask is for them to do a comparison. Nine times out of 10, this state will stack up pretty well against any competition we have.”

     The state’s low population is among its advantages, says Willis’ traveling companion and boss, Tucker Fagan, CEO for the Wyoming Business Council. The expanses may be wide, but that actually facilitates looking people in the eye.

     “You will meet the governor,” he says of doing business in the state. “You will meet the senators, mayor, county commissioners. When you need permitting, you’ll know the individual with DEQ [Dept. of Environmental Quality]. That’s how we do things in Wyoming.”

     The state cowboyed up and re-committed to economic development in the late 1990s, energizing the Business Council. And infrastructure is indeed the primary focus.

     “We realized that many of our communities were devoid of business-ready business parks,” he says. “That’s our main focus right now — 63 percent of our budget goes to assisting communities with infrastructure.”

     When asked if the aforementioned demographic and lifestyle trends in the U.S. are working to Wyoming’s advantage, Fagan responds, “Absolutely.” Besides the low crime rate, good schools and obvious outdoor recreation opportunities, he notes the state’s early commitment to T-1 lines in every high school, now being backed by further incursion of high-speed telecom into every community.

     “These are places people want to live,” he says. “You can live in Story, Wyoming, in the Big Horn Mountains, and have high-speed broadband.”

     That's the kind of cowboying many a 21st century entrepreneur can fully understand.