Economically Speaking Serving the communities of: Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish, Chester, Ludlow, Reading, Springfield, Weathersfield, Windsor and West Windsor
By Bob Flint
Executive Director
It’s officially spring and that means things will soon be brightening up and blooming in the region.
We hope to have news soon on several projects that have been germinating and hopefully will be starting to bud in the coming weeks.
Thanks to all that participated in the recent survey about the proposal to increase the minimum wage in Vermont. We are continuing to watch that and other legislative issues at the Statehouse.
And many thanks for the continued support of SRDC. Please let us know how we can be of assistance to you, and your business!
East Central Vermont Economic Development District
We recently completed a Business Emergency Preparedness sheet that we will be distributing on all of our business visits going forward. While much of this is common sense, there are some items that a company might not have thought of, in terms of having things in order should circumstances prevent normal operations. It could be a severe weather event or some other catastrophic disruption, but no matter what, if there’s something that could shut down your regular course of business, you need to be ready before that happens.
Look for more information coming soon on the ECVEDD Spring Workshop. We expect that we will have a program focusing on Outdoor Recreation and its increasing relevance to economic development. We are currently looking at having this in mid-May. Invitations will be going out in the next few weeks. As always, please let us know if you have any questions about the ECVEDD! Please email Bob at bobf@springfielddevelopment.og or go to ecvedd.org
Written by Debra Boudrieau SBDC Advisor
There is a new question we now get asked every day…should I use social media? Yes. But only with a plan. And only the ones that are relevant to your customers.
And only if you can commit to doing it regularly (we recommend no less than 3x per week).
First you need to decide if you need to do social media, and not just to look at cat videos…using it as a research and purchasing tool. The most important way to answer this is to find out if your clients are using social media. You can decide to do social media to create community. But you are a business so creation of community should lead to sales conversions. Otherwise don’t waste your time.
When you find out why they use social media make sure you verify what platforms they use. Instagram? Facebook? Pinterest? Twitter? B2B…LinkedIn?
Each one of these have different demographics…you don’t need to use all of them.
Now you need to make a plan…a monthly marketing plan that you can use to make sure that all of your marketing (website, ads, brochures, press releases, etc.) are all on the same page (If you would like to know how to create a monthly marketing plan let Sandy know. If enough people are interested I will make that my next column.)
Then decide which days of the week you are going to post and what kinds of content you are going to cover on a weekly basis.
The plan you’ve already made allows you to sit down and write a month’s worth of posts (since now you know what each moth’s topic and focus is) at the same time and line them up in a program like Hoot Suite to populate as directed. That way you aren’t wondering mid-Monday morning what to post.
Social Media is free…that’s the upside. The other side is that it takes time and time is valuable to small biz owners. So if you are going to do Social Media, do it well, do it consistently, and do it to pan
Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development
Members
Acrylic Design
All Seasons Constr. Berkshire Bank
Biben's Home Center
Black River Produce
Countryside Lock & Alarm
Drew's Organic
Dufresne Group
Efficiency Vermont
Graham & Graham, PC CPA
Gravity Renewables
Green Mountain Power
Gurney Bros. Constr.
HB Energy Solutions
Image - Tek Mfg.
IVEK
JELD - WEN
Kelley Sales & Service
Lamb & McNaughton,
Lawrence & Lober Electric Services
Lawrence & Wheeler
Lovejoy Tool
Mascoma Savings Bank
NewsBank
Okemo Mountain Resort
Okemo Valley Chamber of Commerce
One Credit Union
Peoples United Bank
Prudent Living
River Valley Credit Union
Springfield Automart
Springfield Hospital
Springfield Printing
Springfield Realty
Town of Cavendish
Vermont Packing House
Vermont Timber Works
Von Bargen's Jewelry
VTel
WIC
Winstanley Enterprises, LLC
Wright Construction
From our Members
Congratulations to our newest member Countryside Lock & Alarm for being chosen as one of the "Best Places to Work" in Vermont for two concsecutive years!
Introducing Mascoma Bank's new logo.
More Changes at Mascoma Bank
Green Mountain Power Partners with Businesses to Save Money While Reducing Fossil Fuel Use
Green Mountain Power is partnering with customers to help them save money and go green through its Business Innovation Program, which makes available financial incentives to reduce fossil fuels and improve operations.
“We’ve been thrilled with the success we’ve seen as our customers have started cutting costs and cutting carbon,” said Jeff Monder. “You know your business, GMP knows clean energy and together we can green your operations and reduce your costs at the same time. We’re working with customers from many industries to identify customized opportunities that make sense for them.”
Every business customer is different, so GMP works directly with organizations to determine the best path forward for their individual operation, ranging from equipment upgrades to helping access the electric grid, often with financial incentives tied to the amount of fossil fuel reduction.
of tax credit, or $3,750, through a partnership GMP has arranged.And there are exciting opportunities for electric transportation and greening up your company’s fleet. GMP has partnered with Nissan for $3000 discounts on the 2018 Nissan Leaf for fleet vehicles for commercial customers. These all-electric vehicles have very low maintenance costs and very low fuel costs compared to gasoline vehicles. To qualify, companies must have 5 or more fleet vehicles and be able to take delivery of two or more 2018 Leafs. For-profit companies can also get $7,500 per vehicle federal tax credit. And non-profit organizations that are not eligible for tax credits can receive 50% of the value
“As always, the GMP crew was great to work with and very professional. We sincerely appreciate having their skills available to help strategize about where we can make improvements to our operations and also to help us with the work to make transformations on our site,” said Kenneth Johnson, General Manager of A. Johnson Co.
GMP recently helped A. Johnson Co., LLC, convert its Bristol sawmill, which previously ran on a diesel generator, to electric grid power. The company reduced its demand for diesel fuel by almost 31,000 gallons per year and offset its carbon dioxide output by nearly 6,176 metric tons over the next 20 years.
Start today! Interested in learning how your home or business could reduce its carbon footprint? Please reach out to Green Mountain Power at 888-835-4672 or contact our GMP Business Innovations team lead Jeff Monder at 802-770-3392 or jeff.monder@greenmountainpower.com to learn more about GMP Business Innovations opportunities.
