ABC = Always Be (selling) Cola

China Jushi. Volvo. Samsung. Nephron Pharmaceuticals. Boeing. Verizon. Lularoe.

Other than all of these companies being huge economic boosters to their areas since coming to S.C., what do they have in common? They were all recruited here by local leadership in economic development – ranging from the state level to the local university level.

This email would be 45-pages long if we talked to everyone that’s doing economic development. So to (succinctly) explain the process, we dove in by talking to the City of Columbia’s Office of Economic Development to learn about the way the economic development recruiting process works, who’s involved, and what goes into landing the big deals.

1⃣ What does the City of Columbia Office of Economic Development do?

• Recruits business (vs. manufacturing); also focuses on retention + expansion of existing biz + supports entrepreneurs (Cola just ranked as city with 6th lowest start-up costs in the nation)
  
  • What type of biz? Cola has a big insurance-technology cluster (~60 companies in this industry; up from 35 in 2010) so they work with ITs|SC to focus on that; plus white collar + knowledge economy companies (ex: they worked on the recent Capgemini/TCube acquisition)
    
    • DYK: Cola’s insurance industry cluster’s impact:
      
      • 14,000 local employees
      • $7 billion total economic impact locally
      • 2.5% of the gross state product
      • 1 of 8 regions in North America driving insurance technology
      • Companies include BlueCross BlueShield of SC, AT&T, Seibels (100-year-old co. that invented the standup file cabinet), Aflac, Colonial Life, TM Floyd, PwC + more
  • Why just business? Manufacturing plants are big, so they need wide open spaces, which are mostly out of city limits. Thus, the County primarily deals with manufacturing recruiting. The City focuses on business, which typically goes into office buildings (and can fit within city limits).

• Works with Richland County Economic Development often to set up City services for out-of-city-limits manufacturing projects (ex: the two offices worked together on China Jushi – the largest industrial announcement in Rich. Co. in 35 years – and the City provides the plant with 1.2 million gallons of water per day)
• They’re a department of the City of Columbia; report to the City Manager + Asst. City Manager

They collaborate with a variety of different economic development organizations (there are a ton) in the city (sister organizations like OBO), local (North Cola’s Eau Claire Development + UofSC), regional (Richland Co. + Central SC Alliance), state (SC Dept. of Commerce) + national levels to bring in new business.

Basically, it’s a whole industry of people doing similar things in different geographic areas with different specialties – but they all work together to get big wins. ✊

2⃣ How do they get companies to come here?

1. Identify companies that have interest in relocating to your area + get to that decision maker. This is done in a variety of ways:
   
   1. Hire lead generation consultants to identify prospective businesses (i.e. Cola is looking for insurance and IT businesses in the Northeast U.S.)
   2. Some company interest comes in through SC Department of Commerce + is referred to the City
   3. Sometimes companies hire site selectors if they’re looking to move, and then they contact the City to show them around Cola; see available office space or land; check out the talent + workforce coming out of the universities; etc.
      
      1. The company then narrows down potential sites (i.e. from 50 to 5 cities) + contract negotiations begin
2. Make recruitment trip
   
   1. City, County + State offices travel all throughout the year for recruitment trips, trade shows + conferences to solicit companies that could come to Cola as part of their “#TeamSC” approach
      
      1. Pro tip: Go to the Northeast in the winter to convince companies to move down to S.C. where people are playing golf while they’re wearing snowshoes.
      2. Companies who use site selectors come to see you; spend 1-3 days touring city + meeting people, based on talent needs (i.e. UofSC or Fort Jackson)
3. Negotiate sales
   
   1. Sales process starts when companies narrow down cities to 2-3 locations
   2. Product = city, infrastructure, people (talent + workforce), quality of life.
      
      1. S.C. is a nationally-known good state to do biz in
      2. Columbia is more competitive now
   3. Offer incentives
      
      1. Based on job creation + money input, give them an incentives package
      2. State + County + City take a team approach on these: #TeamSC
      3. Good tool to help company make a decision between two locations
      4. Incentives across all levels include:
         
         1. 
            
            1. ReadySC helps ID + train workers so when you open your factory, you’re ready to go
            2. Volvo worked with potential workers to get them the needed certificates so they are ready to work when plant opens
            1. Help reduce and offset various tax burdens (property, sales, income, inventory taxes, etc.)
            2. Offset business costs to purchase or build
            3. Financial assistance such as loans and grant programs
            4. Work with other organizations to provide services such as location assistance, planning, or job training
               
               1. ReadySC helps ID + train workers so when you open your factory, you’re ready to go
               2. Volvo worked with potential workers to get them the needed certificates so they are ready to work when plant opens
      5. Companies make decision based on what would work best for them
         
         1. Economic development offices want these companies to make the best choice for themselves to maintain quality, stay + grow; not close down in 2-3 years because the site was a poor choice.
         2. Incentives must be utilized responsibly. It doesn’t look good to offer incentives if the deal is not going to work for the business or the community.
4. Process can take a year – or even up to 7-10 years
   
   1. It took 5 years for China Jushi – the largest fiberglass manufacturer in China – to pick location (chose Richland County) + make the announcement ($400 million impact)

I had to ask: Did you guys go after Amazon HQ2? Their answer: Yes. But so did everyone else in America. The City, Richland County, Lexington County + Central SC Alliance all jointly pitched the Midlands for the second Amazon Headquarters site.

The City says the competition for HQ2 is aggressive, to say the least. And really, the HQ2 will probably go to a city of millions because it’s bringing 50,000 jobs – and that’s half of Columbia’s entire population.

But the takeaway: It’s pretty cool that people right here in Cola are going after the big deals that make our city more prosperous + cooler to live in – and HQ2 aside, they’re winning a lot of them. 💪

–Chloe

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