Business Retention Overview Program
New companies get the publicity but existing employers are making payroll today and deserve our attention. That’s why, as economic developers, we devote a great deal of our time to business retention. Greg King with the Economic Development Institute at Georgia Tech was quoted as saying that, “100% of job loss comes from existing businesses.” Communities that choose to ignore business retention do so at their own peril.
The Will County Center for Economic Development (CED) and the Will Economic Network (WEN) have partnered to visit over 160 Will County companies. These firms aggregately employ over 20,000 and occupy more than 18 million square feet of space.
A standard survey instrument provided by ComEd ensures consistency in the interviews and allows for trending of data over time. Moreover, in 2004, ComEd provided a separate service sector survey instrument. The data collected is trended separately from manufacturing because the needs and issues are different.