Here is our Top 10 for last week celebrating work and successes to grow and strengthen the Great Falls regional economy -- Montana's Golden Triangle. And, sharing business resources and skill-building opportunities to empower your success.
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2) Share your knowledge and ideas to grow and strengthen the Great Falls regional economy at the Strategic Planning Community Meeting. We are developing a new economic strategy and the first step in the process is to gather information about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Jon us TONIGHT, Tuesday October 12 from 7 – 8 PM in the Gibson Room of the Civic Center. If you can't make it this evening, please take a few minutes to fill out a brief survey here.
6) Thank you to D.A. Davidson’s Vice President and IT Risk Manager Justin Jones for presenting our October webinar on assessing cyber risk. This webinar educated 25 live and recorded viewers on how using the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) can be used to understand the cyber risks of an organization. Click here to view this webinar. All of our previous webinars, including Justin’s January 2019 webinar “Quick Cyber Tips” can be found here.
8) GFDA's Board voted to support the Lincoln Prosperity Plan. The Board also voted to create two new task forces, one to explore the potential to leverage our rapidly expanding health and bioscience assets and the other to form a statewide coalition to improve natural gas transmission capacity to serve Montana.
9) Are you ready to capture the 20%+ of Holiday Sales that will be done online? Get ready with the website bootcamp. We’ll guide you through setting up an ecommerce site you can be proud of can capture more revenue! This course is via zoom register here.
10) Check out October’s Hot Jobs in Great Falls, a collection of open jobs that we’re marketing to people in talent attraction target markets (Seattle, Portland, etc.). These are jobs that people would relocate for. If you have a particularly high-skill, high-salary or out-of-the-box job opportunity to include in November’s list, submit them here.
11) THANK YOU to our wonderful Investors! Recent investments include: Leadership Division--Guy Tabacco Construction; Pacesetter Division—Kelley Aline-Edward Jones; Community Division—Northern Directory Publishing. It is because of their continued support that GFDA is able to continue our efforts to help strengthen and grow our local economy. If you are interested in joining our team of investors, reach out to Investment Director, Jenn Gallmeier at 406-781-9499 or [email protected].
12) We have three exciting career opportunities for Content Marketing Director/Small Business Adviser, Resource Director (grant writing), and Business Development Officer (food processing specialist). Download job postings and please help spread the word. GFDA has a year-round College Intern Program with five paid internship opportunities. Download application. Help us spread the word!
13) Three of our team members, Christian, Jolene and myself, participated in the International Economic Development Council's annual conference in Nashville. I gave a presentation on freight-based economic development in partnership with BNSF. We won a Silver Award for our creative bridge financing work.
14) SBA 504 loan rates dropped this month. If you are looking to expand or acquire new commercial real estate or long-term equipment, contact Jill Kohles to learn how to lock in long-term low rates with as little as 10% equity; [email protected] or 406-590-1056. We do SBA 504 loans statewide.
Feels like fall this week. Lots of exciting things happening. Feels great to have years of work produce wonderful results!
Brett
Brett Doney
President & CEO
Connect with me on LinkedIn to network with the Great Falls Montana region. Forward the GFDA Top 10 to friends and colleagues. You can join our distribution list HERE or text GFDA to 22828.
"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
John Quincy Adams
We are HUNGRY to Grow the Great Falls regional economy, create higher wage jobs, build our tax base, improve our market competitiveness, and enhance the quality of life and economic opportunity for residents of Great Falls, Cascade County, and the entire 13-county Great Falls trade area.
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Events, Business Training, and Opportunities
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Learn how to add the most value to your ranching or processing operation in terms of marketing, financing, distribution, & quality. How do you get the most value for your beef while keeping it local? What business strategies & certifications are best for your operation? What can marketing & networking do for your business? Free workshop on November 3 from 10 AM – 3 PM. Register here.
We deliver print copies of the Great Falls Livability talent attraction magazine around town every Friday – if you would like copies of this great recruitment tool, email Soren at [email protected].
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced changes to the COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). Changes include increases to maximum loan amount and expansion in the uses of funds for paying and prepaying existing business debt. If your business is still struggling to stabilize and recover from the pandemic or are seeing new challenges related to the Delta variant, GFDA’s business advisors are here to help. Connect with Jason at [email protected]. Apply for COVID EIDL on the SBA’s website.
Join the Trailing Partner Email Group specifically for employers to share resumes of trailing spouses/partners across the Great Falls region with other employers looking to hire. Connect with Talent Attraction Director Soren to learn about more great talent attraction tools for employers. “Your (Live in Great Falls) website is very impressive and helpful! Great Falls looks amazing, and we love what we've seen real estate-wise, and business-wise.” This quote was from an email sent to us from a couple considering relocation to Great Falls. We will be sharing their resumes (with their permission) on the Trailing Partner Email Group.
Looking to take control of your business’s financials, increase profit, and improve your bottom line? We have had interest from businesses in scheduling a Profit Mastery course. These courses are scheduled by demand. If you are interested in taking this two-day workshop, contact Jason Nitschke at [email protected] or call (406) 750-0314.
Pro-tip: Post positivity! When you’re using Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn and share something positive about Great Falls, tag @LiveinGreatFalls or @GrowGreatFallsMontana. We will like and share your posts. Follow our talent attraction effort, Live in Great Falls, on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and follow the Great Falls Development Authority to help us attract entrepreneurs and business investment on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
You are facing tough decisions right now. We’ve developed toolkits to help you decide what is best for your business. Toolkits include: Crisis Toolkit, Hibernation Toolkit, Business Resiliency Guide, Re-Opening Toolkit, and a Child Care Whitepaper. All of these can be found on our website.
Visit our relocation website LiveInGreatFalls.com. This website was the #1 request we got from local recruiters and HR professionals for aiding in attracting talented workers to Great Falls. The Great Falls At-A-Glance two-pager is a great complementary resource that highlights Great Falls for people unfamiliar with our community.
We have Brownfield Clean-Up money that we want to put to work! Our low interest Brownfield Loans can be used to clean up hazardous materials including but not limited to lead paint, asbestos, etc. Are you working on a project that could use some clean up? Call Lillian today to discuss eligibility 406.750.1253 or [email protected].
Manufacturers, if you're not engaged with the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center hosted by MSU, you're missing out on powerful resources, services, and networking. MMEC clients report cost savings of $160.3 million, new investment of $328.4 million, $1.3 billion in new and retained sales, and 6,186 new and retained jobs since 2000. We're proud to host an MMEC business adviser who covers the Golden Triangle region. Contact Doug Roberts at [email protected] or (937) 489-3985.
Of our online business planning tool, LivePlan, one said: "LivePlan is Awesome!" The LivePlan tool is helping her streamline her strategy in preparation for presenting to bank partners. We offer LivePlan licenses for free to active clients. Learn more about LivePlan on our website.
All of our recorded monthly business strategy webinars are available online for viewing anytime, click them out here.
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Vision
Hungry to Grow the Great Falls region
Mission
Grow and diversify the Great Falls regional economy.
Create higher wage career opportunities.
Improve market competitiveness.
The first economic development organization in the Rocky Mountain West to earn accreditation from the International Economic Development Council.
GFDA is a certified Community Development Financial Institution and a 501(c)3 charitable organization. High Plains Financial is a certified Community Development Corporation that offers SBA 504 loans statewide. GFDA and High Plains Financial are Equal Opportunity Employers and Lenders.
GFDA is proud to host a Montana Small Business Development Center, a Montana Procurement Technical Assistance Center, and a Montana Food & Ag Development Center. We are also proud to provide office space for MSU's Montana Manufacturing Extension Center.
For more info, click to our website.
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