By Alta LeCompte, Las Cruces Bulletin
With more economic development providers than Caliche’s has sundae toppings, the Mesilla Valley is positioned to do great things. Christine Logan, City of Las Cruces economic development and business assistance director, counts about 38 local agencies doing “good economic development work.”
But these providers can do even more if they know each others’ strengths, she said. Logan, who considers herself a generalist, has called a “get-acquainted” meeting for all 38 agencies. As of Friday, March 22, 15 had accepted the invitation. They will assemble from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Friday, April 5, at City Hall.
Right time, right place
“The chamber, MVEDA, ACI, we’re all saying we need to get together, we need to collaborate,” Logan said. Why now?
“Because the economy has changed so much in the past few years, and we’ve found ourselves having to do more with less – we have all evolved. In the process, redundancies in what we do may have developed, and gaps in the services we provide also may have” she said.
It’s time for the players to clarify for one another what they do now, so they can efficiently direct potential clients to the people best suited to meeting their needs and complement each others’ efforts, Logan said.
“We need to go around the circle and tell each other what we do, who we do it for and what geographical restrictions apply to where we offer services,” she said. “We need to see where there are redundancies and where there are gaps.”
What are we missing?
Logan said an entrepreneur seeking assistance writing a business plan may be told five or six different places where they can be helped. In fact, only one of those five or six is going to be the best fit for their specific needs.
For example, while the Las Cruces Small Business Development Center offers the most comprehensive business planning assistance, WESST is geared to work with clients who are brand new to the business world and will want a small amount of start-up capital. And SCORE has special strengths working with particular industries, including restaurants, Logan said. “If we can all get together, we’ll be better at making the right referrals,” she said. “The client will get to the right person faster and it will be better for the agencies because they will be using their time more effectively.”
How should we connect?
Logan said she can see any number of ways collaboration among local economic developers could evolve. A follow-up meeting is likely, she said. There could be an annual summit, where service providers share updates on economic development trends changes in available tax credits and other topics. Or the agencies may opt to have brown bags occasionally like the area’s social workers do, Logan said. Sub-groups with specialties in common, such as workforce development, might emerge.
“We may need to expand to include statewide agencies,” she added.
Logan said all the local economic development agencies and organizations are working toward to same underlying goal: improvement of the quality of life in the area. “Some of us do it by addressing personal wealth creation through business recruitment and retention and job creation, while others focus on community wealth creation by growing the tax base and expanding educational opportunities,” she said.
Specializing and collaborating
Specialization is a good thing, Logan said. Attendees have expertise in everything from tourism to commercial space, from micro lending to federal procurement and from veterans training to business networking. There are experts in the business of art, and those who know how to attract call centers, she said.
“Motivating junior high students to stay in school and go to college doesn’t require the same skill set as motivating a Mexican company to locate their business here,” she said.
Whatever their focus, however, each agency is evolving and always trying to do more with scarce resources. Some, such as the High Tech Consortium are pursuing their goals as an all volunteer organization, Logan said. She cited her own challenges as her role with the city has evolved. She said the city used to be very involved with the Downtown Las Cruces Partnership, the airport and the film industry. While she still works closely with the city-owned airport, she has lost touch with some of the others.
“Before I know it, it’s been six months and I realize I don’t know what the film community is doing,” she said. “They’re quite likely are some good programs for agriculture, but I don’t know about that because my focus is on the city. “None of us have the time to get the quality of life to where we want it to be. I think there’s more of a desire now to see how other people are doing and feel like collectively we’re getting somewhere.”
