Economic Gardening

The GRE Regional Economic Gardening Program is designed to provide sophisticated, tailor-made technical assistance to local companies poised for growth in the Greater Rochester, NY region. GRE partners with National Center for Economic Gardening, a national organization that supports entrepreneurship, to provide this unique program to Rochester area companies.

Economic gardening is ideal for second-stage entrepreneurs because it focuses on critical strategic challenges they’re wrestling with – from developing new markets and refining business models to assessing competitive intelligence. By providing second-stage CEOs with action-oriented tools and information, economic gardening specialists point them to new opportunities they may never have thought of on their own. Selected companies will have access to a suite of high-end, high-speed development tools.

Identify qualified leads by sorting contents of extensive databases
Map geographic areas using GIS software to facilitate targeted marketing efforts
Review core strategies related to commodity and/or niche markets
Examine social media utilization to connect with customers
Place your website in front of more customers using search engine optimization
Analyze employee temperament to build strong management teams

We offer this program to a select group of companies in the Greater Rochester region at no cost, thanks to generous financial support from Greater Rochester Enterprise, Empire State Development, Monroe County Industrial Development Corporation, and the William and Sheila Konar Foundation.

Greater Rochester Enterprise president & CEO Matt Hurlbutt discussed the GRE Regional Economic Gardening Program on News 8 at Sunrise.

Does Your Company Qualify?

To apply for this free program, your business must meet the following eligibility criteria:

Be a for-profit, privately held company headquartered and operating in Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming or Yates County
Have between $1 million and $50 million in annual revenue
Employ at least 10 but no more than 100 employees (including the owner)
Have maintained principal operations in the Greater Rochester, NY Region for at least the past 2 years
Demonstrate growth in employment and/or revenue for at least 2 of the past 5 years
Provide products and/or services to markets outside of the Greater Rochester, NY Region

Note: Retail, restaurant establishments, and local service providers (e.g. accounting, legal, staffing firms) do not qualify for this program.

Is Your Company Ready to Grow?

Applications are now being accepted for our economic gardening program.

If you are interested in GRE's Economic Gardening program, please call us at 585-530-6200 or email EG@RochesterBiz.com

Grow Thanks to Our Partners

M.C.I.D.C. Monroe County Industrial Development Corporation.

Stylized knot logo with words William and Sheila Konar Foundation.

Relevant Documents

GRE Regional Economic Gardening Brochure

Economic Gardening Op Ed Article

Builders Exchange of Rochester, New York.

City of Rochester, New York. Lovely A Warren, Mayor. Rochester City Council.

Crosby Brownlie Inc. Mechanical contractors and custom metal fabricators.

Eastman Business Park, a Kodak business.

Excellus Blue Cross, Blue Shield: Live Fearless.

Flaum Management Company, Inc. Development, brokerage, consultants.

Gallina Development Corporation: www.gallinadev.com

Genesee County Economic Development Center: Power, People, Incentives.

Harter, Secrest and Emery, LLP. Attorneys and counsellors.

Local 435 - Laborers International Union of North America, Rochester, New York.

Cushman and Wakefield. Pyramid Brokerage Company.

R.I.T. Rochester Institute of Technology.

Unicon: Unions and businesses united in construction.

University of Rochester School of Medicine.

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Scientific Reports named Rochester 18th among "The World's Leading Science Cities." (May 2013) more

At $127,000, the median home sales price is 51% more affordable than the national average. Approximately 86% of area homes are affordable for our region's median income. NAHB Housing Opportunity Index (Q1 2019) more

Monroe Community College cited as a national model for best practices in workforce development. more

Realtor.com ranked Rochester, NY the hottest real estate market. more

Rochester, NY is recognized as one of the 25 most innovative cities in America as measured by 24/7 Wall St. (2018) more

According to U.S. News & World Report, Rochester is the 13th Best Place to Live in the U.S. for Quality of Life. Short commutes and high-quality education were key factors. (2018) more

In U.S. News and World Report's 2019 evaluation of more than 17,000 public high schools, 11 schools in the Greater Rochester, N.Y. region are among the top 10 percent. more

Rochester, NY was named one of the Top 10 Best Golf Cities in America. (source: Golf.com) more

Recent map from Popular Science article shows Rochester, NY is a low risk for natural disasters (August 2014) more

Rochester Institute of Technology is one of the top schools in the world to study game design and launch games. (The Princeton Review, 2017) more

USA Today ranked The Strong as the #3 “Best Museum for Families” in the country more

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For the second straight year, the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York has been named the best wine region in the United States in a national poll conducted by USA Today and its travel site, 10Best.com. (August 2019) more

Rochester's health care costs are among the lowest in the country. Commercial insurance costs are 30% below the national average. more

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Rochester, NY is the second least stressed out city according to CNN/Money. (July 2014) more

Rochester's health care costs are the 4th lowest in the nation (Institute of Medicine, 2015) more

7% of the world's fresh water supply is right here in the Greater Rochester, NY Region. And water rates well below the national average. more

COMPANIES HIRING HERE

We will connect you to the right people and the right resources to expand your company in the Greater Rochester, NY region.

585-530-6200

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Drawing of a seedling with a graph arrow pointing up.

Tailor-made technical assistance to help accelerate the growth of second stage companies. Learn more

ECONOMIC GARDENING

Outline map of New York State with the greater Rochester region highlighted in yellow.

Economic Gardening

Does Your Company Qualify?

Is Your Company Ready to Grow?

Grow Thanks to Our Partners

Relevant Documents

About GRE

Doing Business Here

International Trade

Living Here

Key Industries