Business Retention on a Budget: Billings’ BEAR Program Leverages Volunteers

by Linda Beck, Director of Business Outreach and Recruitment, Big Sky Economic Development Corporation

Big Sky EDA in Billings has developed a business retention program that uses volunteers effectively and now is being replicated across Montana.

Billings, Montana, population 100,000, is a small jewel of a city that has all the urban amenities – cuisine, culture, recreation and character – flavored with a Western welcome. As the regional hub for a 500-mile radius, it is geographically the largest trade area in the United States. To the south is Yellowstone National Park, and north is Glacier National Park. But as you venture out further on the eastern plains, lights in windows are few and very far between.

Until the oil bust of the 1980s, extractive industries and agriculture drove the region’s economy. Rebuilding demanded diversification, but devising a concerted strategy required leadership that was not in evidence. Hence, The Big Sky Economic Development Authority was launched in 1989 to fill that role.

In 2001, Joe McClure, then the new executive director of Big Sky EDA, created a new position charged with developing a business retention program. As in other small cities – and predominantly rural states – resources were limited. For one employee to run such a major initiative successfully, resources would have to come through partnerships.

Starting from scratch

The first step in developing the business retention program was to meet with the business development task force of the Billings Chamber of Commerce, which became the main resource for business and community information. Next, a steering group was recruited comprising organizations directly involved in employment, business development, training and education. Montana State University-Bozeman Extension Center staff with business retention experience provided ideas and advice, as well as a survey form as a possible tool for the program.

After conducting a pilot project that used the survey to interview 16 companies about their needs, it became clear that the survey results needed to be available electronically. This was both for the sake of efficiency and due to the realization that a major part of the process was to gather aggregate data – not only to demonstrate the value of the program, but to aid in shaping legislative policy and expanding business services.

Big Sky EDA staff later attended a training course presented by ExecutivePulse, a provider of business retention software. Of the many course participants from cities, counties and states already using ExecutivePulse, our group was dismayed to learn that most of the groups retained paid employees to do the retention and expansion work. That was not going to be possible in our program.

But one of the conference presenters spoke of his experiences using volunteers, and therein we found a ray of hope that we too could use volunteers and be successful. The Celebrate Billings Education Task Force, a business group organized by our local newspaper, agreed to purchase access to the software and the training began.

Organizing a program around volunteers

The program – now known as BEAR, for Business Expansion And Retention – evolved into a three-tier structure of volunteers: the Assessment Team, the Resource Team and the BEAR Interviewers.

» Page 2 of 2