What is a local development strategy?
Local development strategy is a strategic document held by your local government which details their strategic goals for local economic development.
It describes their development priorities.
In order to fulfil the plan, they have allocated substantial financial and labour resources. Usually, this plan has a projected timeframe for over a decade in the future.
The following programs will be the kind of objectives which they will be looking to spend on:
- building of roads,
- setting up local amenities
- assisting business start-up
- recruitment/training support etc.
Why is local development strategy important?
Your poultry farm is part of a value chain. A local economy.
The economy is hosted by the government.
And their:
- rules,
- regulations and
- inclinations
…greatly influence what prospers and what doesn’t under their jurisdiction.
Even the start-up of your poultry farm, if it isn’t supported by local authorities cannot get off the ground.
Local government have budgets allocated from public funds.
With these funds, they seek to accomplish all sorts of initiatives.
And all things they handle are focused on stimulating growth and productivity within their boundaries.
They also have a duty to preserve the balance of economic stability.
The local authorities have appointed personnel in departments, like planning, to be gatekeepers and decision-makers.
Such personnel make decisions like issuing planning permission for building projects to proceed,
Or registrations of new businesses.
Local authorities also allocate funding to help local business stakeholders whose plan fit well with their governmental strategy.
Your poultry farm business will do well to get acquainted with local authority reps and their development goals.
This way you could align your objectives to support theirs and partnership benefits could flow both ways.
Best practice
Read the local strategy document
Alignment begins at the head.
The future successes of your poultry farm depend on it fitting in with the bigger socio-economic picture.
Just think to yourself, that there is already a backstory to commerce in your region and you want to behave yourself wisely.
Wanting to help the cause of economic growth in your area is commendable.
But help only truly helps if it supports the direction from above.
In this case, your local development strategy is where you want to look.
Understand what policy decision-makers find important re: trade and commerce.
Then consider how you might best position your poultry farm to assist such measures.
Think:
- increasing employment,
- supporting other local traders and value chain contributors,
- promotion of your locality to external investment etc.
These generally will be the buzz words and key phrases included in such strategies.
Meet your local authority decision-makers
There is no substitute for meeting decision-makers.
That way neither of you is untrusting of the other when it comes to working together.
Build understanding early on to reap the rewards of unified thinking later.
Chamber of commerce attendance
Your local chamber of commerce is where many of the invested local stakeholders will gather.
Whilst they can get quite political, they are also a good place to add value.
Meeting others in such a meeting place opens your eyes to the needs of other businesses and brings other causes to your ears.
You just don’t know what will stir you and what you might find to help.
Give it a go.
Stay updated on news, views and rules
Stay current.
The conversation in market places is VERY time-sensitive.
What is hot today, it not necessarily even warm tomorrow.
You’ll do well to keep abreast of the prevailing discourse.
Ths way you can always position your business as a RELEVANT contributor of value.
