The Job That Never Ends Beating the local business community's drum is a lot harder than it used to be.
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Imagine you're a juggler, and the number of balls you haveto keep in play is doubled with every toss. That's what hasbeen happening to many U.S. economic development agencies, saysKurt Chilcott, chairman of the International Economic DevelopmentCouncil.
Historically, economic development focused on bringing jobs intoa region. But in the past 20 years, their roles have expanded toinclude working with existing businesses, helping create new firmsand improving the assets that attract companies to a region,explains Chilcott. As if that weren't enough, the September 11attacks and the recent recession have officials scrambling to buoytheir economies. Increasingly, many say they're looking intheir own backyards for business--but do their actions bear outthat claim?
"The combination of the dotcom bust and Boeing layoff cost[this region] about 30,000 jobs," says Ben Wolters of theSeattle Office of Economic Development. One of the region'smajor small-business industries--tourism--also took a nosedive. Inresponse, the city began a marketing campaign to bring touristsback and shifted its focus from helping Internet companies grow toassisting a fledgling biotech sector.
But the message has been slow getting out to businesses thatalready call Seattle their home. Daryl King, whose Seattle bed andbreakfast, Bacon Mansion, lost $30,000 in business after September11, says reservations from people driving into the city areabnormally high, but he can't directly attribute the uptick tothe city marketing campaign.
In Dallas, severe budget cuts have forced officials to becomemore creative. Director Harry Swanson says the Dallas EconomicDevelopment Department is now handling business counseling onlineand is concentrating on new franchise development. Entrepreneursthere believe the efforts to attract new businesses come at theirexpense, says David Pinkus, president of Small Business UnitedTexas.
In North Carolina, the situation is different. Representativesfrom the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) and NorthCarolina Citizens for Business and Industry (NCCBI) say that overthe years, their members have been instrumental in helping shapeeconomic development policy. "There's a good bit ofcollaboration among the agencies," says the CED's LisaRowe-Ralls. In fact, she says the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce,which handles economic development for the Wake County region,recently sponsored the CED's venture conference.
This obviously is an effort to replace thousands of lost telecomjobs with an emerging bioscience industry. But Wake County EconomicDevelopment executive director Ken Atkins says they also spend moretime (about 50 percent, compared to 20 or 25 percent in the past)nurturing existing businesses.
Can economic development agencies change their stripes, or isthe talk merely political babble? Entrepreneurial groups agree thatonly time will tell.
Contact Sources
- Bacon Mansion LLC
(206) 329-1864, www.baconmansion.com - CDC Small Business Finance Corp.
(619) 291-3594, kchilcott@cdloans.com - City of Dallas Economic Development Department
(214) 670-1685 www.dallas-edd.org - Council for Entrepreneurial Development
(919) 549-7500, ext. 109, lrralls@cednc.org - Seattle Office of Economic Development
(206) 684-8591, ben.wolters@ci.seattle.wa.us - Small Business United Texas
(512) 476-1707, www.sbutx.org - Wake County Economic Development
(919) 664-7041, katkins@the-chamber.org
