Why Business Retention? Communities need to think like a for-profit organization: how do we take care of our customers, so that they will continue to give us business? This is the basic idea behind a business retention program: take care of your current customers, as it is much less expensive to do this than to continue to replace lost businesses because of a poor business climate. It is estimated that between 60-80% of all new jobs created in a community come from the existing employer base.
Additionally, job loss is to be expected in any community. Changes within industries and in market conditions will drive mergers, loss of market share and consolidations. All of these factors result in approximately 1,900 layoffs per year in El Paso County. Additionally, approximately 1,600 new primary jobs are needed each year to meet the needs of students graduating from high school or college, who wish to enter the workforce. Therefore, just to fill lost jobs and to have adequate opportunity for the new workforce, over 3,500 new primary jobs need to be created each year. The Local Industry Visitation Program works with primary employers to help them expand and create these jobs.
The Local Industry Visitation Program exists to support primary employers in El Paso County, by addressing issues faced by these employers and by improving the business climate to facilitate growth. We do this by conducting in-person visits to primary employers, to conduct interviews on the business climate and to determine if there are issues with which employers need assistance.
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