What is a city's greatest economic driver? According to data presented by Blane, Canada Ltd., the answer is existing businesses. Their research shows that existing firms produce 76 per cent of new jobs and capital investment in a given city.
Meanwhile, business attraction and entrepreneurs account for 15 per cent and nine per cent, respectively. And while all three groups should be part of a comprehensive strategy to grow and diversify a city or region's economy, clearly the former is a key element of success. For economic development, foreign businesses may be the dessert, but existing firms are the hearty main course.
Accordingly, Initiatives Prince George (IPG) has made local business retention and expansion a key priority and created the full-time position of business development officer. But what does this really mean, and where does one start? My role of business development officer can be boiled down to two simple elements: helping local businesses by developing various programs and creating a better business climate for Prince George. All of this begins with speaking to local firms. Last year we conducted 154 in-depth interviews to learn about the opportunities and issues facing Prince George businesses. Not only were we able to provide direct tools and information to these companies, we were also able to create longer-term initiatives based on what businesses were telling us.
For example, we heard that businesses continued to face difficulties finding skilled employees.
As a result, we launched Move Up Prince George, a marketing campaign meant to attract more people to the city by showcasing jobs and lifestyle in Prince George, in late summer 2014. Moreover, employee retention was determined to be a concern for many companies.
Consequently, we will be creating an Employee Retention Best Practices Guide and in partnership with local business service organizations, are planning a day of workshops around some issues addressed in the conversations, such as human resources, market research, strategic and financial planning and sales.
The interviews also revealed that various types of industrial and commercial space needed for the expansion and development of businesses are lacking in the city. We are therefore conducting an annual Downtown Occupancy Study and Warehousing Market Report to review the quality and quantity of available space in Prince George. These reports are far from stagnant: they form the basis for city policy as well as our ability to promote opportunities in the Prince George market to potential investors.
Business managers also related a desire to learn more about market expansion opportunities for their firms. To address this need, we will be creating information sheets on market opportunities in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere internationally, based on the competitive advantages of Prince George businesses. We will also continue to hold our very popular Market Expansion Forum in January, which featured 182 total attendees in its 2014 edition.
The event helps connect local firms to major project sponsors in northern B.C. such as TransCanada, Enbridge, Pacific BioEnergy and Canfor, among others.
Furthermore, planning is underway for a series of presentations with Western Canada's premier general contractors and engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) companies.
This series will connect Prince George businesses to the major players in the region and explain how local firms can become sub-contractors within their projects.
More information will be coming on this initiative over the course of the summer.
Due to length constraints, this article has had to omit many other initiatives which are being developed. If you would like to learn more about some of these programs, we would encourage you to attend our Chamber of Commerce luncheon on June 11 at the Sandman Signature. Alternatively, if you would like to speak to us or if you have an idea for a program which can help grow local businesses, please email me at [email protected], or call me at 250-649-3205.
Neil O'Farrell is the business development officer with Initiatives Prince George.
