Many believe the key to building rural entrepreneurship is to work with the young.
Small businesses are an important part of small metropolitan and rural economies.
However, a concern is the 80 to 90 percent failure rate of small businesses. Small businesses with business plans are more likely to survive. This program originated with Dr. Jonathan P. Sher s 1976 Harvard Graduate School of Education dissertation on Rural School Community Development Corporations. Sher was concerned with the lack of career opportunities for youth in rural areas and was searching for a way to stem the brain drain rural communities were facing, with its youth leaving for the cities. From its start in the 1980s, the REAL program has grown into a national network of local programs.