Business Resource VII – The Business Retention and Expansion Questionnaire

 I started with the Prince William County Department of Economic Development in June of 2011.  During my interview I was asked what I would do. I gave something along these lines: 

“I would focus my attention on basic industries with an employment range of 5-50 employees.  These are the businesses that could benefit from various programs in the County and Virginia and usually simply do not have the time to find out what is available.  These are your job generators.  However, the first order of business is to schedule BRE calls with the leading businesses in the County. We always need to know their challenges and expansion potential.  But the bulk of my time will likely be sent on the businesses with an employment range of 5-50.”

I did exactly that.  Among my first activities was to create a BRE questionnaire.  It is attached.  It is very dry if you read it. However, in eight years of using this and improved versions was I never finished it.  As you can see, it is three pages and most of the questions are open ended. 

What are the goals/objectives of this strategy?  It is fourfold:

--Start a long-term conversation

-- Strive to be the first call a business executive or his team makes when considering an expansion or an employee reduction.

--Strive to be the individual the executive or his team calls when they have questions or concerns about your jurisdiction.

--Develop a relationship with the business executive and his team so your calls and emails are returned promptly.

The interview helps you learn what is important to the team.  This allows you to customize unique opportunities to the executive and his team.  

If this makes sense to you, be warned, the responsibility on the BRE professional is significant. It encompasses this:

--Read business publications.

--Know the people who can help your client.

--Have a general idea of the federal, state, and local resources available to the client.

--Have a general understanding of the policies and practices of your jurisdiction.

How do you do this? Just review the six other postings of previous resources.  These took years to build, manage, and keep updated. But it was well worth the effort.

 This is a link to the survey:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TV41anrklF0-ekxI1SC2niTwhYb6lO3Q/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105727592661546387822&rtpof=true&sd=true

Until COVID, I was doing a variance of a BRE interview for Development Services.  I scheduled brief meetings with small businesses who went through the County permitting process.  Generally, the questions were open ended. 

This is the last entry of the business resource series. As you can see, I tried to develop several comprehensive resources for businesses in Prince William County whether I am in Economic Development or Development Services.  And I will continue doing so.

Business Resource VI – Business Services Luncheon for Small Businesses and Government Contractors

 This was one of my first significant accomplishments during my tenure with the Prince William County Department of Economic Development.  It was an event in 2013 and the title was “Business Services Luncheon”. 

The premise is very simple.  I invited 13 agencies/services to attend the luncheon. It was at no cost to them.  The only requirements were the agency had to be nonprofit or not-for profit, agree to send at least one representative, offered programs focused on small businesses and government contractors, exhibit at a table, and stay the entire time.

All agencies invited agreed to attend.  We had organizations that covered financing, trade, business expansion, networking, labor, business counseling, and transportation.  For the small businesses and government contractors, it was a one stop location to access key services and secure contacts.

The format equally is simple.  All the exhibitors took a table in the lobby in one of the County’s hotels.  Everyone (participants and exhibitors) went to lunch. We listened to a speaker, then adjourned to the lobby.  The participants could seek out the exhibitors they thought could help them with a challenge.

We invited numerous businesses that fit the criteria. In the end, we had over 65 businesses attend.

I created the program for the participants. As you will see, it has the full contact information of each exhibitor and a brief description of the services offered.  Every business attending could quickly scan the program and seek out the appropriate exhibitor or exhibitors.

This was well received by participants and exhibitors.  Several exhibitors stayed well past the time as did numerous participants.

Attached you will find the program and pictures of the luncheon.

Link to program:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NyQi_r7oKIiA9YM5y0LG0iF8MUFsEhBf/view?usp=sharing

Link to pictures:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Y6wJNUMEc6fQgRluRBLdlt_i0n_k5JeV/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105727592661546387822&rtpof=true&sd=true

Business Resource V – A Permitting Guide for Prince William Science Accelerator Tenants

One of the far-sighted actions taken by Prince William County was the creation and funding of the Prince William Science Accelerator.  The accelerator is the result of years of work and effort by Ms. Martha Schoonmaker.  She is an economic development visionary.  

In a nutshell, the Prince William Science Accelerator was created to provide the catalyst for a growing life sciences industry cluster. I could go on, but the purpose of this post is to highlight my minor contribution.

One of the early concerns was the permitting process.  It is important to remember that the clients applying for space in the accelerator are scientists.  These individuals know their science and products/services.  However, permitting was new to them.

Former Prince County economic development director Jeff Kaczmarek asked me to put together a working permit guide for future tenants.  It is highly customized and applicable only to this facility.  I started working on the draft and immediately contacted staff in Development Services (permitting).  Working with me, they offered concrete steps to ensure that the process was as expedited and smooth as possible.   All of these are Joint Occupancy Evaluation (JOE) permits. 

Working with all the key partners, I was able to distill the process into 10 steps on two pages (and not small print). When appropriate, a contact, website, and link to an application was included.  I also added the expected cost and how long a tenant should be prepared to spend getting a permit.  It is essentially a soup to nuts document.

Link to the process:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o0PEj1T8v5C5eTD4iZ1k8EM-9-1b7-ie/view?usp=sharing

Business Resource IV – The Permitting/Registration Process for a Winery and Brewery

 I moved to Development Services in October of 2019.  These are two products I developed and I am immensely proud of.  It took several weeks to create.  As far as I know, nothing else like it exists.  It is a comprehensive flowchart for a winery and a brewery of the required local, state, and federal permits, taxes, and registrations.  The top page shows the flowchart and below it is contact data and links to the appropriate government site. When possible, I included links to the appropriate forms.  This is a never-ending project.  In fact, I added another page on resources for breweries and wineries just this month.

This looks pretty simple. However, I burned through approximately 30 drafts and revisions.  In addition, I communicated with numerous federal, state, and local departments and regulatory agencies. 

Link to brewery flow chart:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16yHSEkblEeNrhxb7LNGY4O1O3hpK8VS3/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105727592661546387822&rtpof=true&sd=true

Link to winery flow chart:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bUBnoTaz-C6xA3qWFXfGHosWCjMTw-bL/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105727592661546387822&rtpof=true&sd=true

Business Resource III - The Introduction Email

This is an example of the introduction email I created to send to new businesses.  It is short, easy to read and contains all the necessary links.  For clarity purpose, I only included the body of the email.  I am very proud of this.  As you can see, it covers several key resources sponsored by the County, including:

• free counseling by staff of the Mason Small Business Development Center, which the County subsidizes on an annual basis;
  
  
• key data on permitting and the innovative Small Business Project Management program run out of the Development Services Dept.;
  
  
•  highlighting the County economic development department; and
  
  
• important finance forms and background links.

All services are free. I think this is important. The purpose is to offer the most likely resources needed by a start-up.  Of course, I could have added more, like training resources, memberships like the chamber, etc.  The list is endless. Most others are included in my first post on this topic two months ago, the business resources PowerPoint.

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

Business Resource I - A Comprehensive List of Federal, State, Regional, and Local Services to Assist Business in the County

I thought I would reflect on the products I am most proud of creating during my tenure at Prince William County.  I have several that I developed to benefit small businesses and entrepreneurs. 

The first one is my “Permitting Assistance; Entrepreneurial; and Small Business Resources”. It is a PowerPoint slide deck that covers local, state, and federal permitting, registration, and resources.  The state and federal permitting and registration section is very basic, the local section deeper. 

This came about from a request from Supervisor Pete Candland asking about services and assistance for small businesses, and exploring a buy local campaign. The first version had 14 slides, with five noting “Buy Local” campaigns in other cities.  The response was given to Supervisor Candland on January 7, 2014.

Now, after seven years, the version that was on the economic website it grew to a deck of approximately 150 slides.  My personal deck is 190, which I still use for presentations.

The deck for the public is approximately 150 slides. Each slide in the deck follows a very basic format. A title telling you the jurisdiction and the purpose.  The write-up briefly describes the slide and always includes a link for more information or to a specific application. I used the slide deck to replace a massive and comprehensive paper resource guide (164 pages) that the department produced for several years. 

Several people did not like the slide deck. The most common negative comments I received were I cannot find what I am looking for, and it is too cumbersome. On those two points, I agree.

However, I loved it. It was easy to update and every new program I found was an automatic slide.  I added firms I read about in Fortune, Forbes, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.  Examples include various crowdfunding sources, variou

s business plan templates, and grants databases.  Private sector firms included are Maker’s Row, Atrium, FIVERR, Glassdoor, Pay Scale, Jobcase, and Gigster.

Most importantly, I could customize a slide deck in a matter of minutes. After all, I created it and I knew the structure and organization hands down.  An example is a call I got from a firm trying to secure financing. It took me 10 minutes to edit the master PowerPoint to create the customized slide deck. 

A link to the resource follows. Take a look and enjoy.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1e0g0fkkxJjnOXsMCrFLNoeKAVz5dF4pH/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105727592661546387822&rtpof=true&sd=true