HOW WE HELP EDC / CDC DIRECTORS
BASED ON CONVERSATIONS WE HAVE HAD WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPERS:
Wearing multiple hats is part of the job but... It make is very hard to make consistent progress on a project and show the impact all their work does for the community; this is especially true for directors working without any support staff. Switching from role to role and project to project as an EDC/CDC director not only takes time away from projects, it can also take away focus and momentum from getting a project or program finished and implemented.
Pebble Plan helps with this by: Providing a turnkey service that can be deployed the same day a decision is made and that gives the community a resource that doesn't require the directors regular attention to provide ongoing value. Because our services are immediately ready to support the small business in your community the time you would otherwise spend helping them get ready for a board presentation can be spent on other projects. Just send your small business applicants to our website and we will help them get their plan together so they can show you and your board why they are worthy of taxpay investment. When they come back they will have an easy to analyze plan ready for you and your board; if they don't come back it is because they realized they are not ready to launch yet and you saved the time you would have spent otherwise holding their hand. Because we are self-paced & online this is available for all of your people all the time.
I'd like to provide hands-on help to every applicant but... Most towns don't have local resources that can support entrepreneurs when they need help in the evenings & weekends (when entrepreneurs are available), and most EDC/CDC directors don't have the time to sit down and help even if they have the training to do so. Even though the state & federal governments pay for small business help (SBDC, etc.) they are often effectively unavailable to rural business owners due to time & travel challenges. This forces rural directors to choose between spending money on outside consulting help or letting their business owners go without the help they may need to create more jobs and increase the tax roles for the community.
Pebble Plan gives you options by: Providing a 24/7 resource where your small business owners can get help at no additional charge. Our online platform extends the reach of the help resources the state & fed are already paying for, so your business owners get the help they need without spending money on outside consultants. If those resources are closed your people can still get help from our built-in curriculum and our companion course. Pebble Plan is built around our educational process and helping business owners make good decisions based on knowledge about their business. Take a little time to check into the depth of our easy-to-use educational content & process, you will not be disappointed.
New businesses are great, but I need to keep the ones I already have strong: When it comes to using tax dollars as incentives to grow a towns economy, few things will draw a stronger reaction than supporting a new business when existing businesses are struggling and asking for help. It's hard to please everyone, and EDC/CDC directors have to balance where they spend their time, energy and money as they try to make good decisions on what is going to get the best return for the community. You cant give everyone money, but having resources to let them know your on their side helps a lot.
Pebble Plan is equally useful for existing businesses: We know that business retention and expansion is just as important to the stability of an economy as entrepreneurship is to it's growth; Pebble Plan has been designed to support both. The tools and educational content in the app make it easy and efficient for business to plan their growth and test new ideas in the app before they experiment on live customers. When a company wants support from the EDC/CDC for growth or needs help recovering from setbacks, Pebble Plan makes it easy to get everyone on the same page with a comprehensive planning process and easy to analyze reports.
GET BETTER PLANS, ADD MORE JOBS & GET YOUR TIME BACK
As an EDC director the choice is yours about how you want to use Pebble Plan; if the EDC pays for access your local entrepreneurs will get their plans for free, if you don't want to pay, your business owners can pay for their own access and you can still get all the benefits. Just send your people to us and we will send them back to you better prepared to succeed and grow your towns economy.
If you want to see the software in action book a time for a live demo or view a recorded demo now.
HOW WE HELP EDC / CDC BOARDS
BASED ON CONVERSATIONS WE HAVE HAD WITH BOARD MEMBERS:
Turn-key programs makes turnover in the directors position less disruptive: Any time ta community changes EDC/CDC leadership there is an opportunity for disruption and for things that were working to stop working. Part of the board's role is to manage the turnover process and keep things running smoothly during the transition. From that perspective, any programs that that were built on the prior directors unique skills or connections are a potential source of problem when they leave. One of the best ways boards can ensure stability during a transition and that the new director walks into a functioning office is to select programs that are easy to administer and that don't take much ongoing attention to get results with.
Pebble Plan produces consistent results with little to no oversight needed: Our planning process doesn't let applicants just tell you the story they want to tell, we pull back the curtain on what they are going to do, how they are going to do it and why. We ask specific questions that give bankers key insights into whether or not how they are going to run the business is going to meet the demands of the market and make sales. We do this with all of our users, so every business gets the benefit of examining and reexamining what works and what doesn't; if every business did this they would be less risky.
Board members don't have the time to read lengthy plans before a meeting: Boards trust their directors, that's why they approved their selection as director; but they do need to understand the basics of how the business operates before they approve funding. Most board members, with the possible exception of bankers, want to see a concise summary of how the business works and what it's financial potential is, that can be reviewed and understood within 5 - 10 minutes. If they need more detail they will ask for it. This helps keep meetings productive and gets applicants through the process quickly.
Pebble Plan provides the best business plan summary available: With 4 pages of operational & financial data formatted to be fast & easy to read, board members can get a good understanding of the growth plan for the business they are discussing in the time before the meeting starts. Because all Pebble Plans are formatted the same way every time, board members know just where to look to find information related to the discussion taking place as they go, and can ask specific questions about the data presented and how the business plans to reach those goals. If the business makes it past the initial discussion, the full plan is formatted the same way with much more detailed information presented.
BECOME A PEBBLE PARTNER AND GET BETTER PLANS + BETTER BORROWERS
As a leader in your organization you can get started with Pebble Plan today and add a new tool to increase the quality and consistency of your programs plus improve the efficiency & of your meetings.
If you want to see the software in action book a time for a live demo or view a recorded demo now.
