Building Accountability in Economic Development

Economic development should be accountable for how they spend public money and how programs are working or not working in their community. Many economic development organizations have no formal system for accountability and in the end it will catch up with them. Here are five ways to build accountability into your daily routine.

Make your goals public – This works on a number of levels. In terms of your organization it means publicly announcing your goals and objectives for the year. In terms of your board, it means clearly defining your goals and providing regular updates on status. In terms of yourself, it means holding yourself accountable for getting the job done and working with your team to motivate and lead.

Share your planning documents and action plans – Many of your economic development projects will have timelines and milestones. By sharing your action plans with your team, board and other key stakeholders you build trust and increase accountability. It is another way to publicly state your agenda and create a powerful accountability mechanism for getting things done. If you are constantly missing milestones, questions will begin to be asked. Alternatively, when you are constantly meeting milestones, you begin to build a strong sense of accountability.

Build in short-term goals – If every goal is long-term it will be difficult to show results. Make sure every goal has smaller or short-term goals built in. Then communicate with others when the smaller goals are met and how they work towards and are accountable to the larger goals.

Encourage discussion and debate – It is often easier to quietly go about business and work towards your goals. However, by encouraging discussion and even debate with staff, board and stakeholders about what you are doing will help to stay accountable. It will communicate your goals and provide another level of understanding of what you are doing and why.

Schedule regular updates – Some organizations meet on a weekly or monthly basis while others it’s quarterly or annually. Depending on when your organization meets develop a regular routine of providing updates. This can be through emails, newsletters or scheduled meetings.

Signs of Recovery in Your Community

Businesses are starting to become more and more optimistic about an economic recovery coming sooner than later. Good news for communities that have been struggling over the past year but do you know how to read the signs of recovery in your community? Here are a few examples of successful businesses, pockets of consumer spending and rebounds to look for in your community.

Personal Services – Over the past year and a half businesses offering personal services (i.e. salons, spas, massage) have been experiencing a drop in demand. Recently, more and more of these businesses are expressing an increased demand and are seeing consumers no longer holding out on paying for these services. Can you easily walk into a salon in your community and get an appointment immediately or do you have to book in advance?

Increased Automobile Sales – Certainly financial incentives and low or zero payment plans are playing a role in consumers purchasing cars. But look around your community and see how many new vehicles are on the road, how many have temporary paper plates or demo plates?

Temporary Agencies – Local temp agencies are starting to report an increase in demand for their workers. As local businesses start to see an increase in demand for their product or services, one of the first places many will go to is the temp agencies to start to fill the vacancies. Talk to your local agencies to see what they are experiencing.

Business Expansion – Are any businesses expanding in your community? Many communities are seeing an expansion of their local businesses, particularly the ones who had planned it over a year ago are now starting to go ahead with their original expansion plans.

Consumer Spending – Are your local consumers confident enough to spend their discretionary income on products considered non-essential or luxury? The sale of 1 million iPhones 3Gs within three days of its launch in the US was clearly one sign of recovery.

Advertising – The way businesses spend their advertising and marketing dollars have changed over the past number of years and businesses have cut marketing budgets. Recently, businesses are starting to investment again in marketing and advertising. Online, low-cost advertising investments are booming. What's happening with your local businesses?

Learning from Others - Part II

I love hearing from other economic development organizations about what they are doing. It’s an easy way to learn what’s working in other communities and how it might be applied elsewhere. It’s also a great way to get ideas flowing to improve economic development strategies. Here’s a few more examples of what others are doing.

Sonoma County

Sonoma County Economic Development Board has defined their role as providing tools to help businesses perform better and stay ahead of emerging trends. The organization has stimulated economic vitality for the technology, tourism and agricultural sectors in recent years. Evidence of this is seen in the science curriculum at their state university where 70 percent of graduates are able to find jobs. They have created the Sonoma Tourism Bureau and have developed integrated marketing program for county agriculture.

The Board understands that education attainment is a priority noting that a well-educated work force will attract business. They have initiated a website to show small business how to survive tough economic times. As well, they are conducting a permitting function study with the goal of accelerating operations along with another project monitoring how climate change legislation will impact firms in their area.

City of Cloverdale

This community conducted a branding study that revealed 70 percent of residents leave each day for jobs elsewhere. The Cloverdale Economic Partnership updated their general plan to include ways to attract more jobs to the community. The city also wishes to expand Cloverdale’s sphere of influence by annexing Asti and an unincorporated area near the southwest side of town.

Cloverdale received an MTA grant to study ways to transport people from downtown to the future SMART station on the other side of Highway 101. They will be exploring ways to commercially use land formerly occupied by the Citrus Fair.

Learning from Others - Part I

Some communities do economic development really well while others struggle to understand what they can accomplish. No matter how well economic development is done in your community we can always learn new ideas and strategies. Here are a few examples of what some economic development organizations are doing in their communities.

City of Santa Rosa

In 2007, the City of Santa Rosa refined their economic sustainability strategy by focusing on new employment opportunities and ways to increase the spending by visitors to their downtown retail stores. The revised plan targets firms that they have identified as desirable for their community. They are building a brand image to support Santa Rosa’s shop local campaign and have developed events such as Small Business Week, Getting Diners to the Door, the Retail Academy, the Amgen Tour, Scooter Rosa, along with specific holiday events and First Friday’s for the arts.

Using the service LoopNet, the city is taking inventory of vacant retail space so the planning department can assess site decision data. A business visitation process has been initiative that interviews 30 to 40 firms annually to learn about challenges facing local firms and how the city can facilitate change.

Various federal/state loan programs are being utilized to upgrade properties and aid in remediation. Parking signage is being improved to enhance the use of public spaces, and five city redevelopment projects have been identified.

The Environment, Equity and Economics are the three E’s of their local strategy.

Economic Development - The Retail Store

Often times we think of economic development as something different and separate from those agencies or businesses that have customers. For economic development our customers include local businesses, community stakeholders, residents, potential investors, the list goes on. Many economic development organizations could learn from the practices of successful retail businesses about how to interact with customers or clients. This is especially true for the support staff that are usually your front line. This is basic stuff but many organizations do not address it.

Welcoming smile – Just like the retail store first impressions are important. The first person in your office is the first impression of your community. Smile at each individual as they come into your office. Make them feel welcome and important.

Your telephone greeting – Rather than leave the greeting to chance, consider the phrases that are fitting for your community. Keep the greeting short, there’s no point in overwhelming the client. Make sure the greeting ties in with your overall messaging of your community.

No matter what – No matter what else you or your staff are doing, pause to acknowledge your customer when they enter your office. Research shows that people are more willing to wait for service if they feel that their presence is acknowledged.

Serve the line – Serve people in the order that they have asked for service. Don’t keep people waiting and don’t let others jump in front.

Find the answer – There are times when you will be asked a question that you don’t know the answer to. Always do everything possible to find out the answer, whether you refer the customer to someone else or you do additional research then get back to them. The answer is never “I don’t know”.

Economic Development Freebies

Many economic development organizations have had to tighten their belt in this down economy. There’s no extra money for anything other than the basics. But all is not lost in these tough economic times. There still are things you can do and they’re free.

Google yourself – You think you have the best community, you think you have the community everyone wants to live in and do business in. But how well do you really know and understand your community? You need to listen to what others are saying about you. What have businesses, residents, visitors, anyone said about your community this week? Google Alerts can tell you. Check your community through Google every day.

Show me – You can tell me all you want about how good your community is but telling me is one thing, showing me is another. Use video, use testimonials, use feedback surveys. Demonstrate how your community will change my life or my business. There are many tools available on the internet for free that can show your community to the world.

Twitter – Learn how to use Twitter – it’s easy, free and it doesn’t have to take more than a few minutes a day. Your community can get out its message to a much broader audience than ever before.

Strategic Planning in Uncertain Times

Economic development strategic planning is something that every community should do regardless of what the current economic conditions are. Planning for your community’s future doesn’t have to be an exercise in futility or anxiety. Today’s planning may be different than it has in past years because today is a completely different environment than it was in past years. Here are three tips to take into the strategic planning process:

• Be realistic and look at all outcomes – In a highly uncertain environment, it is necessary to develop plans on the assumption that several different futures are possible and to focus attention on the underlying drivers of uncertainty. For example, let’s say your community’s largest employer is an industrial supplier that is highly involved with commercial and residential real estate but also has many government customers. The future for this company and its impact on your community depend on a variety of uncertainties, including construction, housing prices, government stimulus programs etc. It will be important to look at the different outcomes that may be presented to this company and how that will affect your community.
  
• Increase monitoring – Keeping with the example above, depending on how events unfold, the industrial supplier could make a variety of different moves. Ensure your strategic planning has a built in monitoring system that will evaluate current and future indicators so that you are not behind the eight ball. You need to keep up-to-date on what is happening and be able to respond accordingly.
  
• Look beyond the current situation – the economic change now underway will be a continuous unfolding event. It will not remain static and you need to make sure your strategic planning is balanced enough to work through current conditions while being ready to take immediate action as things change. This year’s strategic planning process is a time to evaluate the strategies the current crisis has helped, hurt or failed.

Developing strategies in greater depth, monitoring indicators more rigorously, and remaining focused on the long term will help to boost the odds of creating a plan that can assist your community through the uncertainty.

Read the Signs

The economy is declining and experts are struggling with their predictions for the upswing. Here’s some ways you can look within your own community for signs of recovery. Some of the signs will be anecdotal – you have to park your car further from the mall; the contractor takes longer to return your call; your friends or co-workers are taking vacations away again. More tangible signs of recovery include:

Housing sales – we all saw the rapid decrease in sales and values to start the downtown. While there is still little to be optimistic about pay close attention to home sales, both new and existing. As they start to recover so does your community’s economy.

Employment – Canada lost 129,000 jobs while the US lost almost 600,000 in January alone and it may continue to get worse before it gets better. Many employers are cutting back hours instead of layoffs so one of the first signs of recovery is increased hours of work. Currently it’s at a record low of 33.3 hours per week. Look for a stabilized increase over a two to three month period. Another sign of recovery is the hiring of temporary workers.

Car sales – the automobile industry has been hit hard. Big ticket items like cars are one of the first indicators of an economic slowdown as consumers start to tighten the belt. An encouraging sign of recovery is when consumers start to loosen their belt and begin to buy again. Keep a close watch on stabilizing car sales.

Retail sales – Consumers are shying away from purchases that are not seen as necessities and the retail industry is clearly showing the signs. Discounters like Wal-Mart are bucking the trend as consumers shop for the best price available. As consumers start to feel more confident in spending the retail industry as a whole will start an upward trend while the discounters will see a more even playing field.

Pasta – as any college student knows pasta is a cheap meal and sales are increasing as consumers shop for value. Early recovery sign will show a decrease in the sale of pasta. The largest pasta producer in North America is the American Italian Pasta Company. They have seen a dramatic increase in sales – 43% in 2008 over the previous year. Watch their stock price to see signs of recovery.

Movies – As consumers are only buying what is seen as a necessity, things like going to the movies are seen as an extravagance. The number of tickets sold dropped 4% last year as consumers stopped or reduce the number of times they go to the movie theatre. The increase in ticket prices will be an early sign of economic recovery.

Business Retention

Why are there so many economic development organizations still not in touch with their local business communities? No matter what the economic climate is, a well developed Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) program is a must for all economic development organizations. This isn’t rocket science. The program doesn’t need to be complex and costly. In fact, there are many tools on the internet that can help. Here are just a few:

Ministry of Ontario – provides full BRE resources including a video, survey broken out into specific industry questions, web-based applications and funding information.

University of Minnesota – provides a Business Retention & Expansion Strategies program. They offer workshops and design a full program for a community. They provide much of their information on the internet for download at no cost including a BRE Handbook and survey template.

Ohio BR&E Initiative – here you can get audio podcast and transcript of why your community needs a BRE program plus supporting information including a handbook, sample survey and success stories.

Just these three websites alone will provide you with more than sufficient information to start a BRE program. There are no excuses. In a depressed economy, your local businesses are vital, in a vibrant economy, your local businesses are vital.

Know Thy Competitors and Know Yourself

We’ve talked about the importance of knowing what your competitor is up to and how well they are doing. This type of knowledge can help a community in many ways but how do you find out any information. When it comes to a competitor’s website, finding information is only a click on your toolbar away.

Quarkbase -will provide you with a wealth of knowledge about a site including how popular it is in social news and networking sites, its estimated traffic and even any Twitter accounts associated with it.

Who is Hosting This? will tell you who is hosting a site. You can simply drag the bookmarklet (applet or small computer application) to your browser toolbar.

Smart PageRank does one thing only, it tells you the page ranking of the site you are on. It also provides other information including traffic data and an estimated number of pages indexed on search engines.

DomainTools provides its information in a clear and easy to understand manner. Here you can see who registered the domain name and information about inbound links and references in search engines and directories.

Way Back Machine has nothing to do with 80’s disco and everything to do the history of how a website evolved. You can see how a site looked at almost any point in that site’s history. By looking at the older versions of a page or website you can see how its look and content changed and evolved.

All of these tools are free and are an easy way to look beyond just the website page. You need to know what your competitor is doing but these tools also can provide some useful information for your own website.

What's Love Got to Do with It?

It’s not usual for economic development and Valentine’s Day to be tied together. Sure, we can talk about the economics of Valentine’s. According to a survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF), most of us will spend about twenty dollars less this year than we did last year. Fewer people will be going out for dinner this year and will chose to stay home instead. It will be more about small tokens of appreciation than it will be about extravagant purchases. For economic development we can factor out what that means for our individual communities. How our local businesses will be affected. How the local consumers are spending their money – to local mom and pops, big box or online?

As Tina Turner belted out in the 80’s, What’s Love Got to Do with It? For the sake of your community – a lot. This Valentine’s, let’s look at a few ways that love helps your community.

· Love Your Community – if you don’t, who will? Love what your community has – the good, the bad and the ugly. Proudly promote the good and work to improve the bad and revitalize the ugly. If you don’t know the good, the bad and the ugly – make it a part of your strategy to understand what your community is all about.

· Love Your Businesses – in this time of economic slowdown, you need to ensure you value your existing business base. If you don’t have a formalize business retention strategy, this is the year to make it a priority. Find out what is happening with your businesses and how you can be involved and a catalyst to their success and growth.

· Love Your Job – be passionate about what it is you do. When you are truly passionate about your community it makes everyone else want to know why they need to be living there, doing business there, spending their dollars there.

· Love Your Competitors – find out what your competitive communities are doing right, what are the best practices being implemented, why are businesses there succeeding, why is investment growing there?

As Economic Developers loving your community has got everything to do with.

Is Your Community Investment Ready?

In today's economic uncertainty many communities are rounding up the troops and looking internally rather than externally. While communities need to ensure they have a solid business foundation in place they also need to ensure they are ready for opportunities when the tide changes. Economic development does not happen in a bubble and taking advantage of the economic slowdown to proactively prepare for the future is what successful communities are going to do.

Attracting foreign direct investment can provide a community with new technologies, products, skills and financing, and as such, can stimulate and support economic development. Investment readiness is about ensuring a community is ready when opportunity comes to knock on the door.

A recently produced Investment Readiness manual provides answers to explain the general FDI process and what is required by a community. It provides a step by step process that any community can adapt for their specific attraction goals. The manual provides contacts and links for agencies and organizations that provide additional resources for FDI attraction.

There are many communities that are doing investment attraction successfully and are ready for the opportunities. Unfortunately, there are more communities that are not prepared at all. This manual can be the first step to develop the economic development tools necessary.

Click here to download the manual. More information can be found at twitter.com/ecdevcomdev.

Top Trends For Small Business 2009

What a difference a year makes! Last year’s top trends in small business revolved around technology, the Internet, smart phones and search engine optimization. This year it is no surprise that the dominant trends relate to the economy. While the economy will take some time to improve it is not all bad news for small business.

Consumers want to save not splurge – consumers are looking to spend less and get a bargain. For small business that means offering discounts, bundling services for less and being open to negotiate.

Green is still the new black – being green will become even trendier in 2009. Even with consumers looking for a bargain, they also want their products and service providers to be environmentally conscious. Green consumers in particular will almost always be willing to pay a premium. At a minimum, a small business needs to make sure their website indicates a green commitment. Two websites that can help small business become more environmentally friendly are:

http://www.greenbiz.com/ – this site offers information on sustainable business practices and green business in general. It has a section where small business owners can find out how their energy investment can be best put to use.

http://www.verdiem.com/ – helps small business track their PC energy consumption and then calculates cost savings using internationally accepted energy measurements and verification methodologies. It provides an understanding of how long it will take to achieve a return on a green investment.

Entrepreneurship rules – as the unemployment rate continues to climb many individuals will look to start a business and there are plenty of opportunities. Some of the top business start ups include senior care, pets, children’s services, fitness, personal care and green business.

Interactive Web and Social Networks – the internet has reached a completely new level with the evolution and growth of interactivity for websites (YoutTube, Facebook) and the significant move towards mobile computing will continue. Social networks like Twitter provide cost effective marketing opportunities for small business. Businesses need to take advantage of what is out there or risk falling far behind their competitors.

Low Cost Marketing – businesses will tighten their belts during this economic slowdown but the ones that step up their marketing efforts will benefit. Businesses are looking for low cost marketing that delivers big. Small businesses can work within some of the identified business trends for marketing ideas including online video to connect with customers; blogs; Twitter; coupons, greening your business.

Businesses that are ready and willing to look at their business in a new way during this economic crunch can take advantages of the opportunities that do exist.

EDCD Consulting is an economic development consulting firm that helps communities strategically plan their economic growth. EDCD provides accurate information on demographic, economic, business and industry trend.