These are usually government-funded agencies that are very active and keen to attract your investment when times are good. But how are they doing now that times are bad?

You may be facing dwindling liquidity, reduced customer demand, and increasing pressures with regard to costs; and you may be in survival mode – cutting production, reducing employee numbers, trying to raise cash, and suspending investment plans. Now is the time to turn to your IPA for support.

Advertisement

They should be able to help you with:

  • investigating new funding sources and solutions;
  • accessing new customers and markets;
  • addressing supply issues;
  • improving your products or nservices;
  • controlling costs; and
  • finding new users for surplus assets.

 

A good IPA will have a close relationship with you and already be a useful working partner. If you do not know who your agency is, do look them up. There are a lot of them in Europe and they operate from a national level down to a local level. They will have ‘invest in’, ‘locate in’, or the words ‘enterprise’ or ‘development’ somewhere in their title. They will likely advertise themselves in their area’s newspapers and airports.

Your success is their success, so you should receive a friendly welcome and hopefully some useful assistance. If they happen to disappoint, and do not prove useful, do keep that in mind when you next get the chance to consider growth and are deciding where you will locate your new investment.

Douglas Clark is director of Tenon techlocate, a site search and location marketing consultancy, which is part of the Tenon Group plc, a top 10 firm of accountants and business advisers.

E-mail: douglas.clark@tenongroup.com

Find out more about