What are you doing that is different? What sets your community apart? Are you doing anything that ensures you will get the attention of a new business or developer?
In any business, finding the unique selling proposition is one of the first steps to successfully marketing a product or service. It’s no different in your community. To successfully market your community, you need to find that “something different”. Or you need to alter your approach so you’re doing “something different”. You’ve heard the familiar saying, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten”.
Maybe your community is already special…. You have a cluster of businesses that naturally attract others in the same industry, or you have a very special natural resource, or you have a dynamic college or university with exciting research to transfer to business opportunities, or you have a successful business incubator full of young start-ups, or you have a transportation hub. The possibilities are endless. It’s what you do with that special thing in your community that will allow you to capitalize on the specialness. Can you build (and market) an industry cluster out of a group of associated businesses? Can you create an environment for businesses to thrive, network, maximize opportunities? Can you create an unbelievable package of incentives through unique public/private partnerships?
Maybe your community hasn’t discovered its “something different” yet. It’s very important to discover and then exploit the assets in your community, county or region. Think about it…. Why would a new business start up, move to, or stay in your community? Maybe it’s not something that already exists. Maybe you will have to develop, build or grow the “something special”. Dig deeply. If you were a business or a developer, what would compel you to move to your community, or work in your community? Take an inventory of what you have, and what is easily obtained. Compare that with your goals and objectives. Is there a correlation? Stretch it and bend it. Collaborate and share. There may be a community nearby with similar or complimentary assets.
Don’t limit your imagination on where you can take your community. Make it special. It is!
