Business Resource II - Promoting Local Businesses

One challenge for me as a business retention/expansion (BRE) staffer was highlighting my businesses.  We have so many unique and interesting business ventures in the County.  This is the second product I am very proud of.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), the state economic agency, annually sponsored a “Business Appreciation Month” (BAM).  We (like cities and counties across the state) introduced the typical County board proclamation.  You know, this is Business Appreciation (or Month) and we are grateful for…

I did not think that was enough, but the proclamation gave me an idea.  I decided to highlight at least one business per working day during BAM. As a result, I created the “Company Snapshot”. It was a template designed to allow the company to showcase its strongest assets and be flexible enough to apply to any industry (manufacturing or service).  It was also created to be simple.  

The template had entries for product description, location, year established, employment, various social media networks, and greatest achievement(s).  You will see the various customizations and innovations by the local companies. For example, many put their logo front and center.  Some respondents focused on their product while others highlighted employees.  Most added pictures. It seemed to work for each individual participant.

These profiles had other uses too.  For example, we could use them for marketing purposes and background on existing industries for recruiting new businesses to the County.

This was a successful program. The first year was 2015 and 17 firms participated.  By the second year (2016), I achieved my highest number of participants, 33 firms.  And in 2017 it declined to 24 firms.  This is an excellent example of the life cycle of certain initiatives.  It ceased as an innovative idea after the third year and frankly, that makes sense.  So, after 2017, I decided to stop this activity.

For the companies, I posted the snapshots on my Twitter and LinkIn accounts.  And added a brief introduction.

No doubt you are thinking of several improvements etc.  Well, one last point to keep in mind, this was entirely a one man show. 

Several of the snapshots follow.

Color-Ad:  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ypCpZoJfU55bs-Zjq21PuPZ_eFhpZaXV/view?usp=sharing

InCadence:  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EH1w6LvL1g2vG9mOFCcOPdAfHwpRgWOf/view?usp=sharing

toXcel:  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13dD1cZ9ePuo1jPBzUDZOiqFCeMYmstZ5/view?usp=sharing

Zestron:  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gjNF4fq4AzhqHqg8BgTYQfl5xFBRoKAq/view?usp=sharing