The purpose of economic development, simply stated, is “to positively influence economic change.” This is expressed in terms of wealth generation, economic diversification, job growth & preservation, and building the local tax base.
By most every metric – sales tax receipts, visitor numbers, median household income, number of jobs, unemployment rate – we are experiencing positive economic change. However, we are faced with two significant ongoing economic development challenges: enabling more local working people to be able to raise their families in Eagle County and enabling more local businesses to grow and expand in Eagle County.
Today’s worker shortage (over 2,000 open jobs in Eagle County) and the need to grow and retain the talent pool (under 2% unemployment rate) means that our economic development efforts must focus on retention of both businesses and people. Currently, 40% of our businesses have open positions and 70% plan to add jobs in the next three years.
We must focus our efforts on supporting the growth plans of our current businesses and our entrepreneurs. Yet many people continue to talk about business recruitment. Rightfully so, folks are attracted to the idea of economic diversification. Business attraction is the headline-grabber in economic development, and we want to know what business might relocate to Eagle County.
However, given our unique economy and cost of living drivers, our roadmap to success must be to focus on helping existing business strive and grow in Eagle County. We must keep working to keep and grow the businesses that we already have. Much like your company, it’s easier and less expensive for a community to further assist its existing businesses, or customers, than it is to go find new ones.
Our small business and startups are key to diversifying our economy; economic diversification is not going to come from traditional “business recruiting” but rather by providing assistance and support and infrastructure to encourage local entrepreneurs to turn their business ideas into reality.
Small business development remains of paramount importance as 60% of Eagle County businesses have 4 or less employees (and 90% of our businesses have less than 20 employees). Providing tools & resources to support our existing businesses and providing connections and programs to support entrepreneurs is paramount to diversifying our economy.
Workforce development needs to be a focus in order to address economic growth and diversity. Workforce development and/or training refers to community efforts to train individuals for specific jobs or industries. Training may cover everything from soft skills (work ethic, attitude, getting to work on time) to basic skills (literacy, numeracy) to specific job skills (carpentry or web site development).
CareerWise Colorado & Eagle County School District’s CareerX (exploration) are important workforce development programs to benefit our community. These workforce training programs improve the quality and skill sets of individuals, help place them in jobs, and help businesses find an employee base in line with their needs. A good workforce training program serves three customers: individuals, businesses, and community.
Any community focused on economic development must offer an ecosystem that helps businesses and entrepreneurs throughout their lifecycle, whether in developing a business plan, locating financing, providing access to expensive tools and mentoring, providing leadership and professional development training, providing data & research, developing & retaining a workforce, and navigating local, regional, and statewide resources.
Fortunately for us, we have a growing entrepreneurial support system, with organizations like the Small Business Development Center, Colorado Workforce Center, Vail Valley Economic Development, and others helping startups get off the ground every single day.
Chris Romer is president & CEO of Vail Valley Partnership, the regional chamber of commerce. Learn more at VailValleyPartnership.com