February 4, 2022

2/4/2022

COLLABORATION…..

is the name of our business retention & expansion game here in Ponca City. There have been many studies done on business clusters and how a cluster of industry, restaurant or retail will bring more business and customers to the area. It really is about collaboration, not competition. Staff found this article by Kevin Maggiacomo in the magazine “Real Leaders” interesting as PCDA has been preaching collaboration for many years. Business to business (b2b) networking and contracting can grow any business/industry corridor. Some great reasons to collaborate with other companies are better buying power for like resources, customer convenience and partner proximity. There was only one drawback in this article from Chron and though staff agrees you can have too much of a good thing, we aren’t there yet.

Some of the areas of collaboration PCDA continues to work in are industry/business to business growth, internships to build workforce stickiness and small business assistance. It takes a village, and our village likes to work together.

INTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE

Ponca Works director Liz Leaming works closely with PoHi to get interns placed in local industry positions. To date, 37 interns have been finding out about the inner workings of businesses from industry to retail to service. And, a little bird told us that the possibility of every PoHi graduate being placed in some type of internship might become a reality. Find out more about how internships create workforce stickiness here in Ponca City.

TRADE SHOW BRIGADE

Gets ready to ride again in early March. This award winning program allows PCDA to host a booth at Design 2 Part, a contract manufacturing trade show in Texas. The booth is Ponca City Industries. The participants are contract manufacturers from Ponca City able to showcase their processes, partnerships and talk about the all important customer convenience afforded doing projects in Ponca City. Stay tuned for more details on this great program heading into it’s fifth year.

WIND UP FOR THE PITCH

The PCDA Spring Pitch off is just around the corner for those with a great business idea or an existing business ready to get to the next level (remember Stage II from earlier). Maybe you are an inventor or product developer ready to launch the next big thing. We want YOU to write that business plan and pitch your idea to our group of judges on Friday, March 11^th. Call Kat at 580.761.3028 or Ben Evans at 580.718.4262 to get started on your business plan writing. You will have access to a great online resource called LivePlan to help you write and refine your plan. What are you waiting for? Your future is just a PITCH away! Find out more information here.

FINDING THE NEW

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Has your business explored working with the largest contractors in the United States? We are of course talking about the guvment. As your business seeks new contracts or clients, turn your search to government contracting at the city, county, Tribal, state and federal levels. How? Well, Kay County just happens to have a very helpful Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) representative. Just Ask Dawn! Dawn Brakey is part of the Business Services Team at Pioneer Tech. Stay tuned for upcoming Lunch & Learns to get your business into the government contracting game. Give her a call at (580) 718-4261 or dawnb@pioneertech.edu.