Jefferson Matters: Main Street recently went through a mock business recruitment exercise, which gave positive results.

The Economic Vitality Committee met with Main Street Iowa Business Specialist Robin Bostrom and Downtown Professionals Network Consultant Jay Schlinsog about how to develop a prospect visit to locate a business in Jefferson. The committee then sent out a survey and received 470 responses back, ranging from those who live in Jefferson as well as individuals who live 20-minutes outside of the City. Top responses of what people wanted to see as a business was a full-service restaurant and a brew pub, which garnered over 58-percent of the responses.

JMMS Board President Jamie Daubendiek says a professional site selector, who acted as a prospective business, had the committee go through a mock sales pitch of why he should choose Jefferson to locate his business in.

“So it was a great opportunity for us to learn for one thing. But then to actually put into practice and have someone come down and we can make mistakes with them. And they told us, ‘This worked great. This didn’t work so great. And things to consider going forward.’ So it was a great opportunity and it really kind of set us up for actively going out and recruiting businesses.”

In fact, the exercise went so well, JMMS scored the best out of six Main Street communities that went through the same exercise. The site selector even predicted that Jefferson could see an increase of 500 people in the next five years due to the opportunities available for growth.

For more information about the recruitment program, contact JMMS Program Director Peg Raney at 386-3585 or email her at director@jeffersonmatters.org.