A strong business sector can be difficult to maintain, particularly for municipalities in smaller areas.

Recognizing this, individuals have made moves to start an organization to keep business alive in Cass County.

The Economic Development Corporation of Cass County recently voted to establish a 501c6 non-profit group that would aim to address economic development concerns in Cass County. Some key areas the non-profit would address would be business retention and growth, education and talent retention, quality of place and recruitment.

“We want to provide a collaborative forward thinking leadership board that is a place that we can put strategy together to promote and retain business in Cass County,” said Economic Development Corporation Chairman Troy Clay, who will also chair the board for the new organization. “We also want to put strategies in place to help those businesses grow and make sure Cass County is a place where we love to work and live.”

The development of the 501c6 is an extension of a strategic plan the Economic Development Corporation of Cass County began started in 2015 to begin to effectively retain and grow local businesses.

“As we started down that path, we realized we had to do some things to set the foundation of that strategy,” Clay said. “That included a board with more private sector involvement. You have to have business in the county be part of that board otherwise you’re missing the boat.”

The new organization will work with local governments and established organizations to create a business friendly environment in the county, Clay said. The collaborative model between public and private sector that Clay hopes to create will create strategies that will help businesses grow.

“It will be a good place for business leaders in the community to have a space to really talk about what works best for them, so that they can be confident in staying in Cass County and investing money in growing their businesses,” Clay said. “We need to hear the private sector voice so we can translate that into a strategy that we implement and get results with.”

From the public sector, County Administrator Karen Folks plans to sit on the board of the new organization.

“The collaboration aspect is incredibly important,” Folks said. “[The 501c6] will leverage business owners throughout this area. The organization will be valuable because it will address a number of the concerns and areas within the business community.”

While both Folks and Clay are excited by the opportunities that the new non-profit could bring to Cass County, they are aware that they are still in the very beginning stages of this project.

Paperwork still must be completed at the state and federal level to garner the official 501c6 status and they have only just begun to contact individuals about serving on the new organization’s board of directors.

“We still have some things to finish up,” Clay said. “We want to plant this seed and get this started, because we believe that this can be very, very effective and have a lot to do with the quality of life and doing business in the county.”