Iowa has one of the most business friendly tax climate in the nation.  Coupled with the cost effective, highly skilled workforce and low cost of doing business, Fort Dodge is a strategic choice when choosing a place to expand or establish a new facility. 

Growing Greater Fort Dodge 

2012 Growing Greater Fort Dodge - Annual Report

The economic stability and growth of Greater Fort Dodge depends on the success of the existing employers. In January of 2012 , the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance, the City of Fort Dodge and MidAmerican Energy partnered to implement Growing Greater Fort Dodge. According to the University of Minnesota, an urban/suburban community will average 86% of their growth from existing employers. A rural community is even more dependent on internal growth. Given this fact, business retention and expansion programs is one of the three core economic development strategies along with business attraction and community development.

An effective business retention and expansion program will assess the needs of and barriers to existing business. Those needs and barriers can then be addressed to ensure business survival and growth. A business retention program monitors changing market place dynamics so that policy makers and community leaders can make decisions that can decrease threats or enhance opportunities, and boost community economic growth. When developing the program, we wanted to ensure the information would be relevant and useful; therefore, we followed in line with the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Best of Iowa program. Eventually we will be able to benchmark our results on the past interviews and with results from the region, the state, the Midwest and the nation.