Ideas that help local businesses start, stay, grow and hire.

What it is

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. Entrepreneurship, workforce, Main Street.

Every idea is written the same way: what it is, why it works, how to start it, Texas examples, what to watch out for, the questions directors ask, and the sources.

How ideas get in

• The foundation. The plays most EDOs and chambers already run, researched from extension-service guides, state agency pages and the city programs themselves. Start here if you are new.
• Towns. Interviews and guest columns from the people running programs in Texas communities. Tell us what is working in yours.
• Awards and conferences. We read what wins the TEDC Community Economic Development Awards, the TML Municipal Excellence Awards and IEDC's awards, and we file what holds up.

How we handle numbers

Every figure on this site has a source listed on the page it appears on. We do not publish estimates dressed up as facts, and we do not invent testimonials. If something is wrong, email bre@digitalfacadetx.com and we will fix it and say so.

Who is behind it

The BRE Brief is published by Digital Facade Texas, which makes software that scores how easy every business in a town is to find on Google. That program is pinned in the library because it is ours and the newest. The other ideas are here because they work, and nothing on this site requires buying anything.

The editor is a working economic developer in the Rio Grande Valley who ran a digital facade program by hand, with an intern and a spreadsheet, before the software version existed.

The armadillo is Arlo. He visits businesses, takes notes and files what works.