[kislideshow kirotate=”false”][kislideshowslide kiimageurl=”https://ncgrowth.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/AndrewChristina.jpg” kiyoutubeid=”KsDIYW9mTos”]Christina Carter and Andrew Trump discuss their work for Halifax county, North Carolina[/kislideshowslide][/kislideshow]
NCGrowth recently presented a final report to Cathy Scott, executive director of Halifax County Economic Development, to support business retention and expansion efforts in Halifax County.
Existing businesses are critical to a community’s overall health because they create jobs, pay taxes, and invest in the community. The importance of existing businesses for local economies has been well documented, as has the relative return on investment for retention and expansion of existing businesses versus attraction of new businesses. Business retention and expansion (BRE) programs are initiatives that aim to keep existing businesses in a community and provide resources that will help those businesses thrive and grow. Business retention efforts aim to prevent businesses from closing or relocating. Business expansion efforts aim to help businesses grow, for example through helping them secure financing, find new property, or hire a qualified workforce. Typically, a team composed of economic developers, service providers and community stakeholders, and business leaders lead a community’s formal BRE efforts.
The first section of this report presents industrial indicators in Halifax County. This section uses broad classifications of business sectors to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of the county’s industrial foundation. In the last two decades, job losses in major industries such as manufacturing and the growth of sectors such as education and health services and leisure and hospitality have reshaped the local economy. One consequence that this analysis illuminates is the decline in higher paying jobs and the growth of sectors with lower annual average pay in the county.
The second section of this report analyzes the economic impact of 11 local firms. Using the same method that was used to quantify the impact of the Halifax Regional Medical Center in a 2013 report by the Kenan Institute, these analyses show the direct and ripple effects that each business has on the local economy. These effects include the total economic contribution they make to the county as well as the employment they support countywide. Though these individual businesses do not form a fully representative sample of local firms, the analyses highlight similarities that may warrant further investigation by a BRE team. Most notably, few businesses have strong connections with local suppliers or customers, which limits the circulation of money within the Halifax County economy.
The third section provides general recommendations for structuring a BRE program. These recommendations are drawn heavily from the BRE manual distributed by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), as well as from successful programs around the country. These recommendations center on designing a program and process for business retention and expansion in a community that builds relationships between businesses, BRE team members, and local partner organizations, such as workforce training programs and financial institutions.