Selling the community has similarities to selling your product or service.  Get in front of the right people, explain why they need what you have and cultivate the relationship.  We recently had a great opportunity to do these things when our Owatonna Partners for Economic Development (OPED) met with 20 industrial and commercial developers in the metro.  Mayor Tom Kuntz, Greg Kruschke, Community Development Manager and I met developers from many of the major players in Minnesota development to sell our shovel ready industrial site and really the community as a place to locate business. 
 
On October 5^th, we will get a chance to cultivate these relationships when OPED hosts the second annual ‘Micropolitan Summit’ here in Owatonna.  The event is put together in conjunction with the Minnesota Real Estate Journal and attracts property developers, investors, realtors from Mankato, Rochester and the Twin Cities.  The summit gives us the opportunity to tout the reasons to do business here.  Last year’s Summit was the connection needed to attract a redevelopment project on the south end of town.  More details on the Micropolitan event will be coming soon. 
 
Lastly, 80% of economic development comes from growth of existing business.  That’s why we are out meeting with businesses all year long through the Chamber’s Grow Minnesota! program and OPED’s business visits.  Through these visits we meet, in depth, with 40+ businesses each year to remove barriers to growth. 
 
Once we’re in front of the right people, ‘selling’ Owatonna is easy and we will cultivate the relationships for a long time to come.