Virginia Main Street

Main Street is Economic Development, and local Main Street organizations have a role to play in creating economic growth. One way that they do this is by creating a healthy ecosystem for entrepreneurs and providing services that support the creation and expansion of locally-owned businesses. Many communities accomplish this through grant and training programs like Community Business Launch (CBL), targeted technical assistance to businesses to support e-commerce (check out Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance‘s “Bricks and Clicks” program), and promoting the business district as a whole with extended hours events like First Fridays.

Another way that Main Street organizations can participate in Economic Development is through targeted business recruitment. Take a look at the Ohiopyle Business Opportunities one-pager put together by the Trail Town Program in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. It’s a great example of Main Street-scale economic development and shows a community that has reviewed its assets and market opportunities, knows who their customers are and what they want, and is making an educated pitch to entrepreneurs and business owners.

How can you create a compelling and competitive pitch to locate in your community? Here we go –

1 | Inventory Your Assets

Notice that the Trail Town one-pager starts by highlighting existing businesses and amenities in the area. Not only does this help prospective businesses understand what is existing, but they start to form a sense of the community’s vibe. Restaurateurs will get a sense of who their potential customers would be, why they are visiting or living in the area, where they are staying, and what else is available to them.

2 | Know Your Market

Is it tourists, or residents? Office workers, or college students? Using ESRI market segmentation can provide valuable demographic information, but note that this will only speak to those living in the area and if your community has a lot of tourist attractions (which we know from our asset inventory) then data from Placer.ai will also be valuable in understanding how far your district visitors are coming from, how long they are staying, and where they are spending their time and money. This is invaluable information for entrepreneurs, investors, and business owners.

3 | Identify Gaps

Based on steps one and two, your community is gaining a deeper understanding of its market position. For the trail towns in Pennsylvania and Maryland, clearly they are building local economies and amenities to appeal to trail enthusiasts. Having identified this target market, they have further sorted their assets to know what is existing that is serving that market, which then helps them to determine what’s missing. But, when it comes to marketing tools – like the community one-pagers – gaps become opportunities.

Do these steps sound familiar? If so, it’s because many of the same inputs are used to develop your local Transformation Strategies! If your community and organization have gone through this process recently, and if you are currently (or soon to) tackle the work planning process, then developing a recruitment tool like this should be on your to-do list!

4 | Rip off, duplicate, and promote

Simply create or recreate a document similar to the one from the Trail Town Program that’s tailored to your Transformation Strategies (or Market Strategies) and your assets and opportunities. This is a great activity for your Economic Vitality and Promotions committees to collaborate. Once the document is created, determine your communications plan – post to your website, share on social media, and discuss with your local building and business owners.

5 | Bonus!

Consider working with your local government and financial institutions to put a set of incentives together for your targeted businesses.

How does your community / organization approach business recruitment? How do you plan to use your Transformation Strategies to create, grow, and recruit new businesses? Let us know at mainstreet@dhcd.virginia.gov so that we can share your story and resources with the Virginia Main Street (VMS) network!