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Set Strategies

This section describes a variety of effective economic development strategies. This is not a complete list of economic development strategies a community might consider. Information related to other strategies will be provided in the future.

You have reviewed your community's economic development and assessed its competitive advantages. The next step is to determine which strategy(ies) should be implemented in order to achieve your community's economic development goal. Success in economic development is achieved through the implementation of a number of different and yet complementary strategies.

Managing Downtown Revitalization
This section provides:
- an historical overview of the evolution of Ontario's downtown areas
- diagnostic exercises designed to analyze your downtown's current situation
- a discussion of current downtown challenges and opportunities
- a summary of downtown revitalization approaches and lessons learned
- a detailed framework for developing an effective revitalization plan
- five effective strategies for downtown revitalization
- links to other valuable websites and resources
Business Retention and Expansion
This section provides:
- a detailed discussion on how business retention and expansion can be an effective strategy for supporting the growth of the existing business community
- tools and resources for implementing a local business retention and expansion project
- details on the new web- based BR+E application
- examples of Ontario BR+E project outcomes and impacts
- links to other BR+E resources
Assessing Financial and Economic Impacts: A Guide to Informed Decision-Making
This section provides a step-by- step guide to estimating economic and financial impacts, including:
- The relationship between economic and financial impact
- When and how to do an assessment
- Sources of information
- Case studies of different types of projects
- Multipliers: what they are and how they can vary
- A glossary of relevant terms

Rural Tourism
This section provides information about Rural Tourism development, an economic development strategy considered by many to be a key means of improving the local economy. This section also includes links to other sites with more information about rural tourism development and the Travel Activities and Motivations Study.
Investment Attraction
This section provides information about Investment Attraction, a strategy focused on bringing new business investment to a community. This section also includes links to other websites that are key resources in the area of investment attraction and business recruitment.
Entrepreneurship and Small Business Incubation
This section provides links to some key resources that are available to entrepreneurs wishing to start or expand an existing business.