Economic Gardening

“In 1989, we took the funds that we had been spending on recruiting in new businesses and decided to spend them on local businesses, in helping them to grow.” Chris Gibbons of Littleton, CO (population 40,340) was describing the start of economic gardening. Gibbons was leading a discussion of the concept at the National Economic Gardening and Rural Entrepreneurial Gathering in Fairfield, IA last week.

Gibbons went on, “We’ve had nine city councils since then and every one of them has approved the concept. We have a lot of small business advocates in town who have benefited from the program. Today we’ve got a $500,000 a year budget to work with these companies and individuals. About 15% of that is spent on data bases and data services.”

Littleton’s program is focused upon assisting these entrepreneurs in a number of ways. One of their main focuses is upon assisting in market research and figuring out where products can be sold. “One of the best opportunities today is in the area of web optimization, helping our companies to increase their online rankings. It is field leveling technology that can really help smaller companies.”

The number of businesses in Littleton has almost doubled since it was implemented. Approximately 400 companies and individuals make contact with them annually from the community, with 150 of those requiring extensive work. Helping these small businesses is a growing trend, that Littleton is leading the way on.

Today over 30 communities have embraced the concept, having developed their own economic gardening models. Gibbons runs an excellent “Econ-dev” internet mail-list about the subject. To sign up, send him an email at isre@littletongov.org or check out their website.