The Pine City Area Chamber of Commerce and the Pine City Economic Development Authority have joined the Grow Minnesota!® Partnership, a distinctive, private-sector led economic development program administered by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.
“We welcome the participation of the local chamber and look forward to a solid and continuing partnership,” said Kathi Schaff, Minnesota Chamber Grow Minnesota! Partnership director. “Our growing network of local chamber partners and their economic development entities strengthens our state’s existing economic development effort by adding hundreds of additional eyes and ears, increasing our ability to address the needs of businesses in all corners of the state and to keep them growing in Minnesota.”
Grow Minnesota! Partnership, launched in 2003, has a primary focus to retain Minnesota businesses and to encourage them to expand in the state. It also is an opportunity to thank companies for doing business in Minnesota. Visits are carried out by staff and volunteers from the Minnesota Chamber and its 79 local partners. These partners include local and regional chambers, as well as their local economic development entity co-partners.
In Pine City, the Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the City of Pine City EDA to begin planning visits. “Our goal for 2019 is to start small, but be effective. We want to schedule, at minimum, one visit each month with our volunteer team to meet with business owners,” says Becky Schueller, executive director for the Pine City Chamber.
“Individualized business problem-solving has become our trademark,” Schaff said. “We had one-on-one conversations with key leadership of close to 750 Minnesota companies during the past 12 months. In 290 instances, we connected businesses with the appropriate public and/or private resource to resolve a specific need.”
“The findings from our visits are different from what you might see in typical surveys,” Schaff said. “The findings we deliver to policy-makers are not based on mounds of statistics, but on what businesses throughout the state are actually saying.”
The Pine City Area Chamber will be selecting businesses to visit and reaching out to owners in the coming weeks. All information gathered during a Grow Minnesota visit is confidential. Businesses that are interested in a visit, may also contact the Chamber of Commerce directly at (320) 322 -4040 to have visit scheduled.