Our HITS Program (Hiring, Investing, Training, Space) has made significant progress with retention and expansion projects. HITS is the initiative in Clark County to reach out to businesses and help them identify and obtain resources that help them grow. The program is a collaborative team effort that leverages existing business relationships to increase the resources that businesses use. A HITS representative will ask you four questions to determine if you can save money through public assistance and incentives. If you answer yes to the question, "Are you planning to hire, invest, train or need more space?" in the next year, call us. Contact Amy Donahoe, Director of Hiring & Employer Services at 937-521-1946.

The Team
The core team consists of non-profit resource partners who meet monthly to discuss resources and new projects. The associate team consists of volunteers who assist in making HITS calls or entering data into the system. Both are critical for our success. The core team is listed below. The associate team consists of over 20 professionals + volunteers working with the organization to make the contacts.

Grow—from hiring to financial assistance
Our HITS team will assist you with these free services

HITS (Hiring, Investing, Training, Space)

Hiring

• job postin
• job fairs
• screening
• offsite interviewing
• wage information
• recruitment
• tax credits

Important Questions:
Do you think you may be hiring in the next 12 months? Will you need to lay some people off in the next 12 months?

The most important determining factor for getting incentives is job creation. If you aren’t hiring, then you won’t qualify for most (but not all) incentive programs. Tax credits, loans, grants all usually depend on the number of new hires.

Investing

• low interest
• fixed rate
• public financing
• loan guarantees
• tax credits + exemptions
• grants

Important Questions:
Do you think that you may be investing more money into the business within the next 12 months over and above general operating expenses? Examples would include any fixed capital assets (land, building, construction, renovation, machinery and equipment), research and development costs, training costs, working capital.

The second most important determining factor for getting incentives is fixed capital asset investment. Working capital and other soft costs are next in importance. If there is no hiring and no investing being done, then there is no “traditional” economic development project.

Training

• customized training solutions
• personnel developments
• tax credits
• grants

Important Question: Do you think you will be spending any money on training for new and/or existing employees over the next 12 months?
There are training programs which do not require additional hires or investment (other than what was spent on the training itself). There are also people on our team who are training experts who can help determine how the training needs might best be met and if there are any programs to assist in paying for it.

Space

• incubators
• real estate search
• public land
• build to suit
• zoning
• permits

Important Question: Are you thinking about changing space or adding on to your current space within the next 12 months?

Finding companies the space to do business in is real estate brokerage, and this is a key function of economic developers. Not that they replace brokers themselves, but they add value to the equation by knowing their areas better than anyone when it comes to sites, industrial, distribution, and often office, tech, and commercial space as well. This is a key economic development service that can be provided for a business even if they do not need any assistance.