Owen County’s business is in a great place. With new leadership at the Chamber of Commerce, city and county government, and an exceptionally supportive extension staff, Owen County has pulled together a superstar team to address Business Retention and Expansion.

   Owen County connected with UK’s CEDIK team to ask for help addressing how to better support existing businesses. After a period of recruitment and training, over 22 individuals in Owen County, representing extension, the Chamber of Commerce, the Leadership Owen County Program, and city and county government, volunteered to conduct direct outreach and surveys with local business owners. At this point, this pool of volunteers has garnered 54 surveys by business owners. By the end of August, CEDIK will have delivered the results of the project, and begun the work of developing a strategy to better support businesses based on the feedback directly from business owners.

   The Business Retention and Expansion is designed with a two-fold benefit. On one hand, communities are able to build a stronger relationship between the business owners and the rest of the county. On the other hand, communities gain actionable insight into the needs and challenges of existing businesses with the intent of initiating changes that will better support those businesses.