It’s about investing in Marquette County

Posted by on January 2, 2019

Each year when you receive the invoice for your investment, I am sure you reflect on its value to your company and the community. To close out 2018, the LSCP is working hard to gather our yearly data. Some of which I highlighted in my recent “LSCP Wraps-Up 20th Anniversary” column. This quantified data, allows our team to visibly see the value of your investment throughout the past year.

For example, one of our primary objectives here at the LSCP is business development services. The LSCP has met with nearly 500 businesses in 2018. In these meetings, our business development team provides a wide variety of effective services available to ANYONE in Marquette County. The LSCP is able to provide these low to no cost services because of the investment that our current partners make.

As a reminder, LSCP services are truly available to anyone across Marquette County. Whether a business is just starting up, expanding, overcoming challenges, or taking advantage of available opportunities, we assist by taking the time to discuss your goals and connect you with the right resources. Such resources include:

  • Site location- ZoomProspector is an online GIS-enhanced mapping technology that speeds up and simplifies the process of site selection analysis.
  • Financing- the Economic Development Corporation of Marquette County maintains a pool of revolving loan funds to assist businesses with job creation and retention.
  • State and Federal Incentive Support Information- The LSCP Team provides information on appropriate incentive programs to support development efforts.
  • Grant writing/research- The LSCP includes grant writing and research for our government partners with full service annual investment. Research and grant writing services can also be contracted on an hourly fee basis for organizations throughout the county.
  • Emsi Workforce Insight – Emsi provides an aggregated report using data from over 100 million online worker profiles by job title, company, school, skill, and more. Another report determines where to target your recruiting efforts for specific occupations using alumni data and cost of living adjusted wages.
  • Data Tools: The LSCP has many data tools designed to compile wage reports, industry projections and more.

Investing in the LSCP not only means working with our team, it opens your business up to a network of professionals throughout Marquette County; providing your business a unique opportunity to build relationships and expand your marketing efforts. Are you looking for more ways to be involved with your existing partnership or become a new investor?  Here are a few ideas that you may be interested in:

  • Maybe you’re looking to do more networking within the community. Attend (or even better, host!) a Business After Hours, or get involved with one of the many LSCP committees.
  • Does your business have a big announcement to make or need assistance with a ribbon cutting, anniversary celebration or ground breaking? The LSCP will coordinate the details such as writing a press release, promoting on social media all for no cost.
  • Stay tuned to our events calendar, we post free webinars throughout the year on topics that are beneficial to you and your co-workers.
  • Are you looking for additional ways to market your business? Consider sending an eblast or utilizing our Key to the County program.
  • How about leadership development? Our Lake Superior Leadership Academy has served this role since 1999 and is just waiting for you to sign on.

Although I’ve mentioned how your investment can affect your business and neighboring businesses individually, I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone of the more macro-level effects it has on Marquette County. Your investment is helping to sustain and grow economic development in Marquette County. As this growth occurs, tax revenue is increased allowing critical services, recreation and education to be funded which ultimately makes this a great place to live.

Businesses join the LSCP for different reasons. Many companies benefit from working with our business development team and want to see those services continue for others with business development needs. Some join the LSCP because they see the different marketing, networking, research and advocacy benefits we can provide their business. Others just want to contribute to economic development in our region. No matter why you choose to invest, I want to thank those who continue to support Marquette County through these efforts.

Partners, consider joining our webinar on Partner Benefits on January 22 to learn more about how to utilize what is included in your membership. More information is available on our website, marquette.org.

Not already a partner? I invite you to contact Kennan Marana at 906.226.6591 or kmarana@marquette.org.

Amy Clickner, CEO, writes a bi-weekly column for the Mining Journal.

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