Terry Beckerman
Eric Bramlet
Michael Chapman
J. Roy Dee
Debbie Deckard
Tom Dersch
Margaret Felts
Lesley Hipsher
Larry Hodgson
Eric Ikemire
Ryan Jones
Joe Judge
Robert Marshall
Cathy Renner
Shari Ross
Jim Wilderman
- Developing a support system to keep existing business in our community here and thriving.
- Understanding and solving local/regional business issues
- Helping business to operate optimally
- Helping agri-business to develop and thrive.
- Creating Regional Business Fairs
- Taking local businesses global – through internet and through international business development and market entrance.
- Strengthening the business environment, leveling the playing field, and reducing the government imposed costs of doing business.
- Developing succession plans and opportunities for dying/retiring businesses.
- Start a “10% Shift Campaign”
- Gain 335 jobs
- Increase wages $13 Million
- Boost local taxes $2 million without raising the rate
- Retain $50.8 million of the $508 million that currently leaves
- Create a website that provides a dynamic menu of goods and services online that is updated at least monthly by all the vendors in town. People need a central source of what’s available so they don’t have to go store to store to find out what’s here
- Resist the temptation to use emotional words like “defections” etc. Focus on the positive experience of a 10 minute drive rather than a 1 hour drive (round trip)
- Teach existing retailers that what consumers care about is value, not price, and how they can bolster the value of their sales (e.g., through customer support, convenience, a quality shopping experience, etc.). This is true to a point, but not if the price is more than 10 or 15% of what the shopper can find elsewhere.
- Pick one metabusiness to serve as the foundation for the 10% Shift Campaign. A strong candidate might be the B2B Marketplace, since there’s already an effort underway to create an annual business fair to improve local B2B communication and cooperation. One virtue of the B2B Marketplace is that it allows for discovery of highly specific leakages and local import-replacement opportunities that might not be clear from the less-specific data. The online menu could be the metabusiness for B2C. B2B and B2C probably can’t and shouldn’t use the same method. With B2B you can pay commissions for sales. With B2C that’s impossible, but you could have each merchant pay a very small (<1%) to support the menu if each store maintained its own inventory online.