by John Dowd
Growing businesses and keeping them afloat can be a massive challenge in today’s market. In Montana, it is especially difficult. However, one organization has been working for almost 30 years to help local businesses find a way.
The Ravalli County Economic Development Authority (RCEDA) was recognized with the Economic Development Award by the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce this year. According to the chamber, the award shows that the recipient has gone above and beyond to create lasting impacts on the community and businesses which promote economic growth.
The RCEDA has a nine-member board and just three people on staff. However, it now awards millions in funding and helps hundreds of businesses throughout the valley. Julie Foster was on the original RCEDA board and was hired in 2005 as executive director. She and Grace Nichols, the specialty Crop Business Development Program Manager, were the faces receiving the award on behalf of RCEDA.
L to R, Grace Nichols, Julie Foster and Jill Delaney are the backbone of the Ravalli County Economic Development Authority. Photo by John Dowd.
The organization was formed in 1997 to help grow small businesses in the valley. According to Foster, they are often spending a lot of their time looking over tedious monthly financials, regulations and much more to help businesses start up.
“It means a great deal to be recognized in that manner and that people know what you’re doing,” said Foster about receiving the award..
Foster deals with much of the organizational and funding aspects of the RCEDA. According to her, pre-pandemic, the center had 30 to 40 clients a month. Since COVID-19, that number dropped, and she added that the “nature of what we’re doing is different.” She explained that before, it was easier, in a lot of ways, for a business to start up. However, the pandemic took opportunities away and there is no longer the support system that was once there. Additionally, many businesses went under and the costs to run a business have skyrocketed. According to Foster, now their main mission has become finding ways to create those opportunities that before were a given.
One aspect Foster highlighted in particular was that business expansion has become difficult since the pandemic, often due to a lack of employees and higher required wages. It is a challenge to keep a company going, when employees need higher wages simply to survive. Prices of everything jumped after the pandemic and have not gone down.
This is why, as Foster described, the RCEDA is paying particular attention to what potential companies come to the table with. “Part of starting a business is having your ducks in a row,” said Foster, and that is part of what they look for in proposals. When a proposal is brought to the RCEDA, she will go over the business plan with the party, looking at what the RCEDA may be able to do to help, if anything.
Two statements Foster often finds herself making are, “tell me what your project is, let’s see what’s out there,” and “tell me what your challenges are.” Foster said RCEDA’s part is about finding a way to fit all the pieces together, and staying on top of everything that could potentially help. “There are opportunities that just pass you by,” said Foster. There are so many things, it is difficult to be aware of everything, and they have to let some things pass them by, but they do the best they can.
According to Foster, they work with local and state governments as well as individuals. They have also become very successful at grant writing and they provide loans, as well as technical assistance with finances and education on organizing a business. They even provide regulation considerations and space people can rent and use. Currently, 23 businesses already use space in the facility and there is a waiting list.
They currently have three gap loan funds that total $4 million. One of these is the Ravalli County Loan Fund, which started at $178,000 and has grown to over $2 million. It has revolved six times and has assisted with the creation or retention of over 144 jobs. They also have the Ravalli County Intermediary Relending Program Loan Fund, which has revolved over four times and has funded nearly $1.5 million in loans. The funds do not compete with banks, and often require a match from a local bank for businesses to receive them. These loans help with equipment purchases, building improvements, inventory expansion and even working capital for operations.
They also have a $1 million fund to seed local tourism. According to Foster, “Tourism businesses are hard to fund for a number of reasons.” She has seen all kinds of proposals, but a big one in the valley they are trying to promote is a category called “agri-tourism,” which includes dude ranches, you-pick-berries, wineries and more. They also see things like outdoor recreation, equipment rentals, lodging etc. “They aren’t just things tourists enjoy,” said Foster.
On the agriculture side of things at the RCEDA, Nichols currently works in some capacity with 95% of people that seek help from the RCEDA. This is partly because many of the businesses are agriculture-related. These include small mixed vegetable farms and backyard growers looking for expanded opportunities. Nichols also works closely with the state agriculture department helping to translate regulations and programs to local business owners.
According to Foster, “Grace has elevated agriculture in this valley.” Nichols works on a monthly food and ag newsletter as well as numerous programs available to local growers and agriculture-related businesses. Her position will be dissolving as the grant that paid for that position is ending. However, Foster said Nichols will be moving into a new position, doing the same things she was doing and more, called the Food/Ag Development Center (FADC) Director.
This is in conjunction with a huge project on the horizon that the RCEDA is working on. The project will be a local food processing center called the Bitterroot Food Innovation Center (BFIC). Though this project is still a couple years out, they do already have the property and are moving forward with planning.
This will be a shared use, large scale, commercial kitchen. They are hoping to construct a 6,000 square foot facility, which Foster describes as a “business incubator.” In fact, this term describes a lot of what the RCEDA does for businesses and organizations in the valley.
According to Nichols, processing infrastructure and cold storage are important and at a premium in the area. Nichols added that the “bottleneck is their storage.” These local growers often cannot afford large spaces equipped to keep produce fresh for long periods of time. Some have had to build home-made spaces which are unreliable and can be expensive to operate. If things go wrong it can result in monetary “losses in the tens of thousands,” said Nichols. Their hope is that this new facility would help to “mitigate some of those risks that producers have to deal with,” said Nichols.
The RCEDA is located at 274 Old Corvallis Road, in Hamilton. Parties interested in finding more information can call (406) 375-9416. More information is also available on the website, rceda.org.