(3 of 3)
--Small can be beautiful when recruiting new employers. One of the oldest industries in the Tupelo area is furniture, which today accounts for nearly 40% of the region's manufacturing jobs. Local leaders have worked to sustain that industry by, for example, building a trade-show facility the size of four football fields. But they have also labored to attract firms across a broad range of industries. Says Thomas Griffith, mayor of Amory, just south of Tupelo: "We don't want to be too dependent on any one industry. If one plant shuts down, it doesn't hamstring the total economy."
--Sell your quality of life--and work to improve it. For all its progress, Tupelo is still in the middle of nowhere. It will never attract residents who demand opera, haute cuisine or courtside NBA tickets. But a three-bedroom house costs $100,000 or less. Nearby forests and waterways provide superb fishing, boating, camping and hunting. Tupelo has grown its own symphony and theater group. Its regional hospital employs more than 5,000 people and provides high-quality health care.
Gene Pierce grew up in Tupelo but left to work as an air-bag engineer for Ford. He came home to manage True Temper, whose 473 employees produce steel shafts for golf clubs sold from Tokyo to Turin. Comparing Tupelo with the metropolitan areas, Pierce says, "The pay is just as good here, and there's less hassle."
--With reporting by Alice Jackson Baughn
TIME.com ON AOL For more about Tupelo and other efforts to attract international business, go to time.com/global