Business retention part of plan.

Too much emphasis on attracting new business, officials say

The Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce is taking a different approach to stimulating new economic development and growth in the town: it's placing more emphasis on existing businesses rather than focusing on attracting new business.

A business retention and expansion (BR and E) project is now underway, and the project coordinator says its an initiative that will keep Fort Frances' businesses competitive.

Crystal Godbout says community leaders in other cities and towns where BR and E projects have been initiated have indicated the project has had positive results. She is confident the one-year program will have the same impact in Fort Frances, where she says more emphasis needs to be put on building up businesses already in place.

"The business retention and expansion project was first started in Minnesota," Godbout says. "As far as I know they've been using it in the U.S. for about 20 years and have had some really good results."

"The reason it was developed was because too much emphasis for economic development was being placed on attracting new businesses, whereas local businesses are responsible for 70 to 90 per cent of new employment."

The BR and E project relies on volunteers who will visit local businesses to identify their needs, concerns and problems. Business owners and managers will be asked to complete a survey that allows the volunteers to collect the information they need. That information will be brought back to Godbout who will analyze it and then work with the appropriate people to solve the problems or better meet those needs identified by the businesses.

"The survey doesn't ask specific questions about things, like how much money the business makes," Godbout says, adding the surveys are confidential. "The questions are more generic than that. The interview probably takes 45 minutes to an hour.

"The purpose of the project is to help the local businesses we have here to stay here. If we do come across a business that is possibly going to close, we want to know why they're closing and if there's anything we can do to help them to stay open."

Godbout says she is hoping volunteers will visit and assist about 100 Fort Frances businesses by the time the project ends early next year. Volunteers are still being sought.

"We're trying to get people who aren't necessarily in business, just so that they're not going out and interviewing someone who's in the same type of business they are," Godbout says. "We're trying to get retired or semi retired people or people that work for not-for profit organizations. We're looking for anyone that we can think of that would do well."

Godbout says minor challenges can often be addressed quickly through BR and E projects, and points to one particular instance in Brockville, Ont., where the BR and E project helped to speed up the approval process of hanging a sign that stretched two inches onto city property.

"(The business) was going to have to go to council to get this sign erected - which would have taken months," Godbout says. "After the BR and E project was started, they had the new sign hanging within a month."

She says the greatest benefit to the project is that community leaders learn to tackle one priority at a time to get each one accomplished.

Other BR and E projects have been undertaken in Wawa and Parry Sound.

Fort Frances Mayor Glenn Witherspoon, who is a member of the project's task force, says he's confident the BR and E program "can do nothing but enhance the business community as far as longevity.

"I applaud the initiative of Crystal, the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce and their partner the Rainy River Future Development Corp. for doing such a project. We are very enthused about the project and it can only help our community for the future."

Still in its early stages, the BR and E project will involve a two-month survey process this spring, followed by the analytical and implementation stages.

"It's going to take a good eight to 10 months to complete the project, and then it will continue on from there," Godbout says. "By the time we hold a public meeting after we're done the analysis, it will probably be September.

That's when well start implementing anything that has come from the survey."