NEW: FM BF-101: Economic Development Operations for Local Government Leaders
Released: June 14, 2025 - U.S. Army's 250th Birthday
The field manual that treats economic development like the tactical mission it is. Get It Here.
The BusinessFlare® Publishing Group was launched to provide information about the BusinessFlare® Approach to economic development, design, and entrepreneurship though eBooks and hard copy printings. We are also available to help entrepreneurial-minded aspiring authors in getting your ideas published.
Red Tape Empire
How do you kill a city?
You bury it in red tape. You let bureaucrats decide who gets ahead and who gets crushed. You build a system so tangled in rules and politics that the only way to win is to already be on the inside.
Ellerton was that kind of city. A place where businesses didn’t succeed, they survived. Where permits took years unless you knew the right people. Where progress wasn’t about vision; it was about control.
Clara Reed wasn’t supposed to be a threat. She just wanted to rebuild her family’s market. But the more she fought to follow the rules, the more she realized the rules were never meant for people like her.
She wasn’t alone. A tech entrepreneur with nothing left to lose. An investor with a grudge twenty years in the making. A town waking up to the truth.
The system is collapsing. The old power brokers are losing their grip. And Clara is faced with the most dangerous question of all:
What happens when the people who fought the system become the ones who control it?
Inspired by real battles in economic development, Red Tape Empire is a gut-punch novel about power, corruption, and what it takes to save a city, from an insider who’s seen it all.
Unleash Your Unfair Advantage: Creating Places People Want to Be
Every community has something special that sets it apart: a unique story, character, or hidden gem that can’t be replicated. Yet, too often, downtowns and Main Streets fall into the trap of trying to copy others or chasing trends that don't reflect who they truly are.
In Unleash Your Unfair Advantage, economic development strategist Kevin Crowder shows how communities can identify and leverage their authentic assets to create vibrant, thriving places. With a clear, actionable framework and real-world examples drawn from successful downtowns and revitalized districts, Crowder illustrates why the key to economic vitality isn't found in market studies alone, but in blending data with intuition, storytelling, and entrepreneurial creativity.
This book will empower community leaders, Main Street managers, city officials, and downtown advocates to uncover what makes their community uniquely valuable and translate that advantage into lasting success. You'll discover practical strategies for transforming overlooked assets into powerful economic drivers, creating memorable experiences through thoughtful hospitality, and cultivating a downtown that not only attracts visitors, but keeps them coming back.
Stop competing on someone else's terms. Discover and unleash your unfair advantage, and create a place people genuinely want to be.
Available in Paperback
Beyond Density: Alternative Strategies for Vibrant Urban Centers
In Beyond Density, economic development advisoro Kevin S. Crowder challenges recent conventional wisdom by demonstrating how vibrant, thriving downtowns can be created without relying heavily on residential density. Packed with real-world insights from successful small to mid-sized American cities, this book showcases transformative strategies that prioritize authenticity, community character, and local culture over traditional residential development.
Discover how cities like Granbury, Texas, leveraged heritage tourism, how Greenville, South Carolina, embraced pedestrian-first principles, and how Bend, Oregon, transformed its downtown through tourism and culinary innovation. From public space enhancements and adaptive reuse of historic buildings to dynamic event programming and targeted small-business support, Beyond Density provides a practical roadmap for urban planners, civic leaders, and economic developers who seek revitalization without sacrificing the unique identity of their communities.
Perfect for professionals and local leaders looking for innovative, actionable, and realistic approaches, this book shifts the conversation from simply adding density to thoughtfully creating places people truly love.
Available in Paperback
The Chemistry of Economic Growth
The Chemistry of Economic Growth: Collision Theory in Practice explores the transformative power of connection, energy, and alignment in driving economic development. Drawing on principles of collision theory and the lessons of a chemist’s lab, this book offers a fresh perspective on how communities unlock their potential for sustainable growth.
Author Kevin S. Crowder weaves together insights from his father’s career as a research chemist with his own experiences in economic development. By blending storytelling, practical frameworks, and actionable strategies, Crowder demonstrates how communities can overcome barriers, ignite momentum, and create lasting progress.
Each chapter delves into a core principle of growth:
-Activation Energy: Discover how small, strategic interventions break through inertia and spark momentum.
-Catalysts: Identify the people, policies, and programs that amplify energy and drive transformation.
-Successful Collisions: Learn how energy, alignment, and timing produce transformative outcomes.
-Equilibrium: Balance growth with preservation to sustain long-term success.
With real-world examples, exercises, and tools, this book empowers community leaders, business owners, and stakeholders to create dynamic, thriving communities. Whether revitalizing a downtown, launching an innovative initiative, or fostering collaboration, The Chemistry of Economic Growth provides the inspiration and guidance to turn potential into progress.
Download the Companion Implementation Workbook
Available in eBook and Paperback. Hardcover coming soon. | 100 pages
Gut Sandwich
All too often communities and local governments engage consultants to run a “Gap Analysis” and identify “retail strategies” to attract new businesses, only to find that these strategies are limited and often do not truly enhance the community or meet its needs.
Retail and small business development must occur within the context of an overall place-based economic development approach; otherwise, dollar stores, chains, and restaurants where food comes out of a bag will be the future.
Ultimately, successful economic development is an exercise in intestinal fortitude and not always a place to play it safe. Look beyond the trailing data and find your community’s potential. Learn from successful entrepreneurs and apply their thinking to your economic development growth efforts. Don’t rely solely on the data; instead, put the relevant data between a slice of intuition and a slice of instinct and eat a Gut Sandwich.
"Market Analysis only tells you how you got to a place you may not want to be anymore. It doesn't have anything to do with your potential and where you can go. Stories make the difference."
Available in eBook and Paperback. | 47 pages
Governing for Economic Development
All too often local governments focus on economic development tactics without a strategy, seemingly throwing things against the wall waiting for something to stick. The BusinessFlare® Approach provides a base of understanding that helps local governments implement strategies and tactics that can improve their local economy and grow their tax base within the limitations of their resources. BusinessFlare is an approach that is based in the evaluation and adoption of strategies and tactics to improve six areas of economic development influence: investment drivers, common business climate themes, community connections, economic development values, opportunities and implementation. The former economic development director for Miami Beach, Kevin S. Crowder’s BusinessFlare Approach is based on one of the most significant local economic development successes of the last thirty years and is presented in a way that is relevant to every community.
Available in eBook and paperback. | 48 pages
Gobernando para el Desarrollo Económico
Con demasiada frecuencia, los gobiernos locales se centran en las tácticas de desarrollo económico sin una estrategia, aparentemente arrojando cosas contra la pared esperando que algo se pegue. El Enfoque BusinessFlare® proporciona una base de comprensión que ayuda a los gobiernos locales a implementar estrategias y tácticas que pueden mejorar su economía local y aumentar su base impositiva dentro de las limitaciones de sus recursos. BusinessFlare es un enfoque que se basa en la evaluación y adopción de estrategias y tácticas para mejorar seis áreas de influencia del desarrollo económico: motores de inversión, temas comunes del clima empresarial, conexiones comunitarias, valores de desarrollo económico, oportunidades e implementación. El Enfoque de BusinessFlare de Kevin S. Crowder, ex director de desarrollo económico de Miami Beach, se basa en uno de los éxitos de desarrollo económico local más importantes de los últimos treinta años y se presenta de una manera que es relevante para cada comunidad.
Este libro no pretende ser un curso avanzado para profesionales del desarrollo económico. Está diseñado principalmente para el laico que se postula para un puesto en el consejo de la ciudad porque se preocupa por su comunidad y quiere ver que su economía y calidad de vida mejoren.
eBook y paperback. | 60 pajinas
Confessions of a Physical Chemist
Dr. Gene A. Crowder (Father of BusinessFlare Founder Kevin Crowder) grew up in a small town in rural Oklahoma and went on to serve as the chemistry department head at both West Texas State University and Louisiana Tech University, publishing 170 research papers in the field of mass spectrometry and attracting over $1 million in research grants. He was a student favorite, described as one of their favorites, and having a gift for teaching, one of the few professors that made college about the students. This connection to the students led him to come out of retirement two additional times to teach at the University of Texas at Arlington and at Tarrant County Community College.
This is his personal and professional memoir, stories of rural struggle and hard work, family, ambition, education, independence, success, and faith. It is the story of his family, both growing up and as a grown-up, and it is a story about his experiences in the classroom and in the lab. It is a collection of the stories that made him the man he was, and of the people whose lives he touched. Well respected by everyone he met and one of the smartest and most faithful men to be put in the position to help shape future generations. He was proof that a man of science can be a man of faith, or better yet, that a man of faith can also be a man of science.
These "confessions" will be enjoyed by all, whether or not you personally knew him, because his voice comes through with all of its reason, wit, sense of humor, honesty, and occasional irreverence. You will also get to hear from some of his students in their own words as they provided their comments on their professor and course evaluations over the course of his career.
Available in eBook, paperback and hardback. | 175 pages
Goodnight's Red River Spice Co. Cookbook
Goodnight's Red River Spice Company is one of BusinessFlare's entrepreneurial ventures
Learn authentic recipes based on Goodnight's Red River Spice Blends. Fish, meat, bison, chicken, tacos and burritos, meatballs, curries, wings, chili, and more. Don't Be Intimidated; start cooking and eating now.
These are great for everything from comfort food to competition.
You can buy or download the cookbook here, and you can learn more about the company and buy some spices here.
72 pages
Goodnight's Red River Kids Cookbook
Join the adventure in the kitchen with our young chef as they explore delicious, hearty recipes inspired by the classic American tradition of Goodnight's Red River. From breakfast delights to special occasion feasts, this cookbook is packed with fun, easy-to-follow recipes that are perfect for budding chefs.
Whether you’re making cheesy meatballs for lunch, preparing a holiday roast, or leading your friends in a creative food art activity, each recipe is designed to teach essential cooking skills while sparking creativity and a love for homemade meals.
You can buy or download the cookbook here, and you can learn more about the company and buy some spices here.
Our Drive Ocean Drive
In late summer 2020 we revisited the original Ocean Drive Policy Standards which were instrumental in the successful revitalization of that street and all of South Beach. We believe that the erosion of those standards and less attention to them over time has significantly contributed to the recent decline of Ocean Drive and the Miami Beach Entertainment District. In this publication, we republish those standards and give our two cents on them and their role today. Read it here.
You must be logged in to post a comment.