Workforce Development, Business Retention and Expansion (BRE), and Entrepreneurship programming are strategies intended to stimulate a community's ability to thrive economically.
Workforce development is a form of economic development that focuses on building worker skills. It encompasses both enhancing skills of employees within a business or organization and creating a pipeline of new talent for local business. Workforce development, therefore, involves connecting employers with existing or potential employees in order to strengthen economic opportunities within a region. This connection is made through a variety of programs and networks.
Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) is generally considered to be local development efforts intended to nurture the growth of existing businesses. These efforts can range from informal to formal, but generally consist of a survey or interview process of existing businesses by the local economic development organization, followed by a plan to address common challenges (like lack of infrastructure, high rents, etc.) and an offer of assistance to those businesses experiencing more specific, urgent needs.
NC SBTDC Business Startup and Resource Guide
Workforce Development
Workforce development is a form of economic development that focuses on building worker skills. It encompasses both enhancing skills of employees within a business or organization and creating a pipeline of new talent for local business. Workforce development, therefore, involves connecting employers with existing or potential employees in order to strengthen economic opportunities within a region. This connection is made through a variety of programs and networks.
Business Retention and Expansion
Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) is generally considered to be local development efforts intended to nurture the growth of existing businesses. These efforts can range from informal to formal, but generally consist of a survey or interview process of existing businesses by the local economic development organization, followed by a plan to address common challenges (like lack of infrastructure, high rents, etc.) and an offer of assistance to those businesses experiencing more specific, urgent needs.
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, someone who builds and manages their own business for the purpose of making a profit. Successful entrepreneurship generally arises as the result of a gap in the market that other businesses are not currently filling.Communities can support entrepreneurship by creating an environment that supports innovation, building resource networks, and conducting marketing campaigns that promote hometown entrepreneurial businesses.Entrepreneurship Resources
NC SBTDC Business Startup and Resource Guide
NC SBTDC Developing a Business Plan
Lean Business Model CanvasPublications
- Agriculture and Food
- Downtown Redevelopment and Local Foods
- Growing a Healthy Economy with Local Foods - Six Steps to Success a Toolkit
- Ten Tips for Running a Successful Meeting
Links to Resources
- North Carolina Agromedicine.
- NC AgVentures Grant Program for Independent Small Farms
- Small Business Center Agripreneurship Trainings - Small Business Centers (SBCs) in North Carolina have a unique ability to help farmers and food businesses create viable business plans to increase their share of the local food market. This guide supports the development of a series of workshops enabling local food and farming businesses to follow an agriculture focused entrepreneurial curriculum with guidance from local experts. Participants finish the course with a complete business plan
- Vacationer Supported Agriculture (VSA)
