Best Practices

Performance Reports

Have you ever wanted to study the impact of multiple projects over one or multiple years? Ever wondered exactly what each dollar of your budget has done for your economy? Do you need a tool to explain your community’s economic … Read More

TEDC 2016 Session: Economic Development Secrets Live

Ever wonder how your fellow Texas economic developers seem to keep everything straight on this balance beam kind-of-a field that we work in? Economic Development Secrets originated as a podcast series to help economic developers share their victories, trials, and … Read More

From Prospect to Win Deal Checklist

For me, checklists are a vital part of my work week. Just knowing that I have a reliable list as my safety cushion to get all of my tasks done is one tool that I was taught early on in … Read More

Every Tax Dollar Counts – Creating a #ShopSmall Campaign

It’s that time of year again – the weather is cooling, the leaves are changing colors, holiday decorations are coming out, and #ShopSmall campaigns are beginning to surface. For those of you unfamiliar with this 7-year trend, Small Business Saturday … Read More

Economic Development Due Diligence Checklist

A recurring nightmare for many people is arriving to school and finding out there is a test for which you haven’t studied. Luckily, I can say I have only experienced this bone-shaking fear while sleeping and never in the classroom. … Read More

The Art of Presenting Impact Results to Close the Deal – Insights from ED Practitioners

If you’ve wondered exactly how other economic developers use impact data to evaluate deals or to communicate their consequences to community stakeholders, then you won’t want to miss this playback from the 2016 IEDC Conference in Cleveland. Impact DataSource’s own … Read More

In Defense of ED Incentives

“I’ll stop using economic development incentives when Walmart stops having sales.” – Some Economic Developer, Somewhere, Sometime It’s an intriguing comparison, but are economic development incentives analogous to retail sales? During this webinar, we compared economic development incentives to some … Read More

Three-way Loss: An Economic Development Lesson in the Cancellation of Triathlon Event in Torrance Beach

Canceling a scheduled triathlon event just four days before it is supposed to take place is a loss for athletes, the event organizer, and the city. While the potential was a win-win-win, a dispute over payments for traffic control and … Read More

Lesson #6: Economic Developers Are Full of Wisdom

As the only person doing business retention in a city of 230,000, I was always on the go, always busy, and always concerned about different businesses who needed something. It was so rare that I would take the time to … Read More

Lesson #5: Strategic Plans vs. Performance Reports

All too commonly strategic plans take months to draw up, are shared with your board, and then placed on a shelf where they are never to seen again until it is time to create an updated plan for the next … Read More