Implementing an Economic Gardening Program

It is important for cities to understand that Economic Gardening is not a quick answer to economic problems. It is not a fad diet, it is a lifestyle change. You cannot expect silver bullet solutions to sudden economic woes. Economic Gardening takes time to put into place and time to reach a critical mass of growing companies.

Our approach focuses on bringing sophisticated corporate level tools like database researching, geographic information systems, search engine optimization and social network mapping to the small, growing company. Economic Gardening is also founded on scientific principles that address things like survival in uncertain times.

In a typical engagement, the Economic Gardening team will assist a company with core strategy, market analysis, competitor intelligence, using temperament to slot teams and undertaking custom business research. Normally the team works quickly - within hours or days at the most.

Getting Started

Chris Gibbons, founder of the Economic Gardening concept, came up with this solution to starting up your community's Economic Gardening program.

"We have created a jump start team consisting of a database research company, a GIS company and a web optimization company. The purpose of this team is to contract with communities that are interested in starting an EG program but don't have resources for a full blown project. A community may only want to stick their toe in the water to see how the tools would work and if they are useful to their local business. Or a community may want to hire the team to provide a turnkey start the next day….producing research and marketing help while the community builds its infrastructure (hire staff, buy software, get up the learning curve, etc.) The team can work three months, six months, a year or whatever time period the community desires. Or a community may not be large enough to need a full time program and only want to tap into these resources now and then for selected businesses….it can hire the team at various times during the year. Contact me at chrisgibbons@q.com if you want more information." Chris Gibbons 6/23/08.

Database Research: The database research EG JumpStart Team member is Access Information. For 27 years, Access Information has provided information research, document delivery services, library management, and records management services to attorneys and business professionals. Access/Information is one of the oldest, continuously-operating information professional companies in the country. Check us out on our website.

Search Engine Optimization & & Social Networking: Web EG provides web technology training for local economic development organizations. We train your business outreach staffs so that they can provide local businesses with the same first-level expertise on web and search engine marketing that they routinely provide in other areas such as business loans, entrepreneurial skills, employee training, etc. Check us out on our website.

Geospatial Information Services (GIS): GeoWize provides site prospecting, market development, and market analysis services using the world-class, state-of-art geospatial analysy tools, demographic and expenditure data and a fourth generation customer profiling database. We can provide your organization with pilot project suppport, program startup services, training, and long-term GIS outsourcing services. Check us out on our website.