Why the Future of Economic Development Starts With Existing Businesses
When most people think about economic development, they picture the confetti cannon moments: a company selecting a new location, a groundbreaking ceremony, or a ribbon-cutting that generates buzz throughout the community. And don’t get me wrong: those moments signal growth, create momentum, and help tell the story of a community’s future.
But while communities often focus on attracting the next big opportunity, they sometimes overlook one of the most powerful economic development assets already within their borders: the businesses that call their community home right now.
Truth: Business attraction may generate headlines. Business retention creates a lasting impact.
The Businesses You Already Have Are Worth Investing In
Every existing business in your community has already made a decision that many economic developers spend years trying to influence. They chose your community as a place to invest, hire employees, serve customers, and grow. These businesses know the local market. They’ve built relationships with suppliers, workforce partners, local government, and fellow business owners. They contribute to the tax base, support community events, sponsor local teams, and invest in the places where their employees live and work.
In many cases, the greatest source of future job growth isn’t a company relocating from another state. It’s an existing employer adding a second shift, expanding into a larger facility, launching a new product line, or opening another location. While those investments may not always come with a press conference, they often create the steady, long-term growth that strengthens local economies.
Retention Starts With Listening, But It Doesn’t End There
One of the simplest questions you can ask is also one of the most important:
“How is your business doing?”
The answer often lends itself to opportunities for genuine connection. A small business owner may be thinking about retirement without a succession plan. A growing company may need capital improvements to support expansion. Another may not realize resources are available to help them reach their next milestone.
As economic development practitioners, we LOVE data, but in all honesty, these discoveries don’t show up in spreadsheets. They happen organically through conversations, relationships, and trust.
But here’s the thing: listening is the beginning of the relationship, not all of it. The business owners who become your strongest community advocates, the ones who expand locally instead of elsewhere, who recruit from within your workforce pipeline, who show up at your ribbon cuttings and mean it, those relationships are built through consistent engagement throughout the year. Not just at your Business Appreciation Week. Not just through annual surveys.
So what does that actually look like? Here is a Sesame Street-style approach to BRE (brought to you by the letter “R”!)
Keep the “R” in BRE Alive All Year Long
- The CEO Coffee (No Agenda Required): Invite a small group of business owners to an informal breakfast with local leadership. No slide deck, no agenda. Just conversation.
- The Shop-Along Visit: Ask a manufacturer if you can spend an hour on the floor, or walk a retail space with the owner. Showing up in their world signals interest and gives you context that a Zoom call never will.
- Connect Them to Each Other: One of the most underutilized tools in BRE is the warm introduction. Does your healthcare employer need a caterer for on-site events? Do you have a staffing firm that could help your manufacturer fill a shift? You are the connector, so use your superpowers.
- Host a Problem-Solving Roundtable: Pick one shared challenge (workforce, permitting, housing, whatever’s coming up in your visits) and bring together six to eight business leaders to talk it through. Position your office as the convener, not the answer-giver. The peer-to-peer exchange is worth its weight in gold.
- Celebrate the Quiet Wins: Did a local business just hit 25 years? Promote their fifth hire? Add a second location? Celebrate these wins on social media, in your newsletter, and at community events. Recognition is a retention tool, and it costs almost nothing.
- Check In After the Check-In: If a company shared a challenge during a BRE visit, follow up three months later. Did the workforce program help? Did the permit come through? Did anything change? That follow-through is what turns that initial visit into a real relationship.
- Create a Business Ambassador Program: Identify five to ten business owners who are deeply invested in the community and invite them to serve as informal champions. Bring them behind the curtain on community planning, ask for their input on your messaging, and give them something meaningful to say when a prospective business asks, “So what’s it like to do business here?”
- Send the Handwritten Note: It takes three minutes (and it would make your grandmother proud). It lands differently than an email, trust me@ If a business celebrates a milestone or wins an award, send a note. In a world drowning in digital communication, a handwritten card is so meaningful!
Economic development is about preparing communities for what’s next. But sometimes the best opportunities aren’t waiting somewhere else. They’re already here. By investing in business retention and expansion, communities strengthen relationships, identify opportunities, and build trust with the businesses that already contribute to local success!
What’s your community doing to strengthen relationships with existing businesses? Drop me a line to share how you’re turning retention into long-term growth!
