Ideas for the people who keep local businesses in business.
The BRE Brief is a growing library of ideas that help local businesses start, stay, grow and hire: business retention and expansion, entrepreneurship, workforce and Main Street. Tried-and-true plays with the steps and Texas examples, new ideas as they prove out, and what is working in Texas towns. One new idea in your inbox every Tuesday.
Every idea, filed.
Each one has what it is, why it works, how to start, Texas examples and sources. New to BRE? Start here.
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Digital Facade: the facade program for the storefront customers see first
Every business in town scored on its Google listing, handed a short fix list, re-scored monthly and celebrated at 90. Live in three Texas cities, with a free do-it-yourself version.
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The business visitation program
The core of BRE: scheduled visits to existing employers, the same short set of questions every time, and a system to follow up.
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The BRE survey and the red-flag list
A standard questionnaire that turns visits into data, and a short list of answers that trigger a response.
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The facade improvement grant
A matching grant for the front of a building. The most common small-business incentive in Texas downtowns.
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Business After Hours: the monthly mixer
A come-and-go evening at a member business, same slot every month. The chamber staple that still works.
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The business newsletter
One email a month to every business you know, with things they can use. The delivery channel for everything else on this list.
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Shop local and the community gift card
A campaign that moves spending to local businesses, often with a gift card that only works in town.
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Ribbon cuttings, anniversaries and awards
A photo, a crowd and a plaque. Cheap, and owners remember it for years.
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Improvement grants beyond the facade
Signs, interiors, build-outs: smaller matching grants that reach the businesses a facade grant never will.
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Skills for Small Business: free training money
A state grant that pays for community college training for employers with fewer than 100 employees. A gift you can bring on a visit.
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The one-stop: permits, licenses and a person to call
One place, one person and one plain guide for opening or expanding a business in your city.
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The local business podcast: Growth Signal, Elsa's award-winning show
A short, regular show from the EDC for local business owners. Elsa, Texas built one with two AI hosts, and it won a 2025 Texas Municipal Excellence Award for Communication Programs.
What is working in your town?
Short write-ups from the people running economic development in Texas communities: what you tried, what moved, what you would do again. A mixer, a loan fund, a job fair, a pop-up. If it worked, it belongs here.
We do the interview and the writing. You and your community get the credit, and the rest of the state gets an idea to steal. Guest columns welcome.
Three things you can use today.
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Playbook · Workbook · Certificate
BRE in a Box: DIY Edition
A 16-page playbook, a scorecard and tracker workbook and a certificate template for running a business retention program by hand.
Get the box -
Your town's businesses, scored
A free community snapshot
Tell us your community and we will run a free snapshot of your businesses' online presence. Real businesses, real scores.
Ask for yours -
Memo · Slide
The board packet
A one-page memo and a one-slide summary for taking a digital facade program to your board. Editable, on your letterhead.
Take the packet
Built for the people who run local economic development with a small team.
Most local economic development in Texas happens in offices of one or two people. The ideas that work rarely leave the town they worked in. The BRE Brief is where they get written down, filed and shared: business retention and expansion first, and everything around it that helps local businesses start, stay, grow and hire.
It grows one idea a week, with guest columns and interviews with the people doing the work, and it is free.
Get the 10 plays. Then one new idea every Tuesday.
Free. A five-minute read. First email: Tuesday, October 13.
Send me the 10 plays