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Implement BR&E in your community

Over 60 Minnesota communities have done it. The process takes about 2-3 years and involves commitment to business retention and expansion from your community members and professionals. But in the end, your community will be truly engaged in a business retention and expansion plan.

Extension provides guidance and support. We will:

  • guide recruitment of your BR&E Leadership Team and Task Force.
  • adopt a survey of businesses unique to your local issues.
  • train volunteers who visit local businesses to conduct the survey.
  • help you respond quickly to business concerns that arise (aka “red flags”).
  • tabulate and analyze the results of the survey.
  • generate suggestions for local action from economic development experts.
  • deliver a comprehensive report built upon results.
  • facilitate a community meeting to help prioritize projects.
  • stay in touch as you implement the plan.

Your community can make it happen


Become a BR&E consultant

Business Retention & Expansion Consultants work in communities to implement the BR&E Strategies program. BR&E consultants are typically economic development professionals, local leaders or private consultants. They receive certification upon successful completion of a 16-hour training that will help them mobilize volunteers and conduct the program.

At the conclusion of the course, participants will understand:

  • Where a BR&E program “fits” in a local economic development strategy.
  • How to identify local leaders to serve on a leadership team and task force.
  • How to conduct effective firm visits and train others to make visits.
  • How to write a plan of work to implement and guide the program.
  • How to identify and resolve issues of immediate concern to local business.
  • How to develop a plan with effective implementation strategies.

Online consultant course.

3-day consultant course.

What participants say about the BR&E Consultation Course.


Become a BR&E Report Writer

Writers of BR&E reports analyze survey data and prepare a report that communities want and will use for years to come. By the end of the course, participants will know how to:

  • Summarize survey data and report the results
  • Find and use secondary data
  • Identify the characteristics of good BR&E visitation surveys
  • Structure a report so that it provides great benefit to a community
  • Describe processes for developing recommendations and setting priorities
  • Prepare a summary and a community report
  • Offer recommendations to a community on how to use the report — so it doesn’t just sit on a shelf!

Read BR&E Reports.

Dates & information about the next BR&E Research Reports Course.

Contact us about this course.


Extension Support for Local BR&E Research

If you plan to conduct local research that helps you retain and expand your local businesses, here are some ways Extension can help:

Workshops: Extension can help your community think about ways to plan for local business retention and expansion.

  • Assessment: A workshop can help your community decide whether the Busienss Retention and Expansion Strategies Program is right for you.
  • How to conduct BR&E visits.
  • Setting priorities and taking action -- a planning retreat.

Contact a regional educator to request a local workshop.

Research Services. Extension can:

  • Adopt a survey instrument to your situation.
  • Tabulate and analyze the data that we customized.
  • Provide a complete research package (including survey instrument, data tabulation/analysis, campus research review meeting involving University faculty to develop suggested projects, a four-chapter research report, summary report and a planning retreat. (See Workshops.)

Contact our BR&E Leader to talk about these services,

  or

Contact a regional Community Economics Educator.

 

 
 
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