Description: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service supports two types of Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E): the classic business visitation program, and the industrial cluster retention and expansion program. The classic business visitation program involves forming a community team, interviewing businesses, interpreting the responses, and developing goals and actions steps based on the responses. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service also supports the industrial cluster retention and expansion program. This variation combines the classic BR&E visitation program with modern data-driven industrial cluster support. There are two basic strategies for applying industry cluster data to a BR&E visitation program: (1) follow the classic BR&E steps which are to interview a sample of local businesses and then use the industry cluster data to help indicate which issues are most important; and (2) use the industry cluster data first to help you choose which businesses to interview. The AgriLife facilitator provides community-level socio-economic and business data and helps participants interpret the data. The community then uses the data to inform its choice of which local businesses to interview and its local business support efforts.

For more information and additional resources, visit:
https://agecoext.tamu.edu/programs/community-programs/economic-development/business-retention-expansion/

Target Audience: One or more communities, or a county

Length: 2-3 years to complete (part is planning and part is the implementation of the plan)

Scheduling: Via mutual agreement

Point of Contact:

Craig Carpenter, PhD
Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist
979.845.1941
ccarpenter@tamu.edu