“It was a pleasure to learn from your experience and research on the topic. I don't feel that we have this type of expertise in Oregon — we certainly don't have access to the UMN level of support. Thanks also for office hours availability and talking through our initiative alignment between the BRE and local entrepreneurship work, the insight provided was really helpful to my thinking. I appreciate your candor and humor throughout the course.”
“Really honored to have learned from you and your team — it really is a delightful antidote to the imposter syndrome I have brought into this work as a “new career newbie”!
— Two online participants from Oregon, April 2024
A healthy, vibrant local economy depends largely on the strength of existing businesses. Community leaders can help local businesses grow and thrive through business retention and expansion (BRE) programs.
University of Minnesota Extension has offered business retention and expansion courses since 1996. You can choose to take an eight-week online course or attend a two-day, in-person workshop. Both options provide an opportunity for you to learn how to conduct high-quality programs in your community or region.
In-person course
The BRE in-person course is a traditional class over two days.
The course is held at the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. It is a two-day BRE immersion that includes presentations, videos, individual and small group work and lots of peer discussion.
Highlights include practicing interviewing techniques at real businesses, guest experts who provide BRE tips and stories, and getting to know other economic developers while expanding your network.
There are 50,000+ business owners in Minnesota who will be exiting their businesses in the next several years, which is a BRE issue. So this course has a particular focus on business succession and transition research, methods and case studies.
This course encourages you to think about the best BRE approach for your situation.
Note: If circumstances make in-person instruction unavailable at UMN Extension, we will attempt to pivot to an online delivery mode via Zoom and other virtual tools. If this happens, full refunds will be available for anyone who doesn’t want to participate virtually.
The course agenda is subject to change. Check the event page for an upcoming BRE course to view the draft agenda.
Online course
The BRE online course is an eight-week class. Upcoming courses are listed on this page when they are scheduled.
The course features a community economic development business retention and expansion (BRE) model. This approach includes three key steps and broad-based community involvement that allows both volunteers and professionals to connect with businesses.
The course also infuses discussion and content about staff-driven continuous BRE visitation approaches — examining the similarities and differences between continuous BRE methods and the University of Minnesota’s community economic development BRE model. The course will help you consider how different BRE approaches can be valuable for your economic development situation.
The course typically involves two to four hours per week over an eight-week period. You can work at times convenient for your schedule. Staying involved on a weekly basis, however, optimizes your experience. There are weekly videos, readings, activities and discussion forums. Bi-weekly discussions feature various topics.
The course will help you create a plan for your community or region’s new BRE initiative or improve your existing program.
The course schedule is subject to change, but general topics will remain the same.
Weekly topic on Canvas course site (learn on your own)
- Week 1: Introducing the BRE process
- Week 2: Strategic considerations for your BRE
- Week 3: Getting your BRE off the ground
- Week 4: Building your team
- Week 5: Getting going on business visits
- Week 6: Responding to business concerns
- Week 7: BRE’s intersection with business succession and transition, and entrepreneurship
- Week 8: Building and sustaining credible BRE initiatives over time
Scheduled Zoom sessions (learn together)
We’ll discuss the weekly topics as well as topics appropriate to BRE that arise.
Costs and discounts
- Individual (per person): $399 (regular rate)
- Community members/teams*:
- 2–5 person team: $799 (regular rate)
- Full-time student: $160 (regular rate) — email your transcript to Michael Darger prior to registering
*Community-led BRE is all about teamwork, so we encourage teams to attend training together. We offer team discounts for groups from a town or city, county, school district, or other groups of contiguous communities. It is available for either the online or in-person course.
Upcoming course
Certification
Everyone who completes the course:
- Receives a certificate of accomplishment from University of Minnesota Extension.
- Meets a course requirement to receive a Business Retention and Expansion International (BREI) certification and one-year membership for $75. BREI is an international association that promotes and educates about BRE.
Keep in touch
If you're not quite ready to take a course yet, we can let you know when courses will be available.
Testimonials
"I've taken many courses for economic development and I will say this is by far the most robust. It's been around for 20 years. And with that there's a lot of information and supplemental materials … I would challenge you to at least take a look at it … If you don't have time to read it all, then peruse, skim it, dig into it …"
— Michael Paris, senior business development manager, Norfolk, Virginia (online course participant, fall 2019)
"Business Retention and Expansion is such a vibrant program to launch for your community. And the UMN Extension course and Michael Darger are responsible for teaching us the process. Our economic development organization … is currently immersed in interviewing 100 businesses, gathering information from those interviews and having the responses analyzed to come up with the priority projects our businesses want and need to improve our economy … The UMN course lays out, in excellent detail, how to carry out this meaningful program."
— Dr. Nancy Shepherd, Farmington, New Mexico (summer course participant, 2020)
"Gives me motivation to get my program going. After talking with the local EDA they are on board and it looks like I have my first partner and will get this program off the ground."
"I'm very new to the BRE program. I'm a part of a staff-driven program that is well established. The course taught me a lot of the background of a BRE, the language and how helpful a well designed program is."
"Great course. Happy to have taken it."
"This was excellent, and there was SO MUCH INFORMATION AND RESOURCES!!! I am glad I took this, and wish I didn't have to rush portions of it due to my own schedule, but this will serve me well in the future and I will be sure to share my success when it comes."
"The scope and depth of the material was impressive and it was well organized. Great job."
"I was so impressed with this course I almost feel guilty giving any feedback! Michael did a great job and is a wonderful ambassador for UMN. He is extremely knowledgeable but still personable, accessible, and understanding. He is truly one of the good ones."
"I had zero baseline knowledge of BRE prior to the workshop. While I am not totally confident in implementing the program, I now have all the resources to work through and contacts to answer questions. It was a dense two days but I was given a great tool-kit!"
"Great discussions, material, and great opportunity to do the practice visits with local businesses. Thanks!"
"Great job/training, much more involved than I expected. Didn't like long survey at first but I think it's the right way. BRE much more involved than I thought and many more volunteers than I thought. Rethinking and will change our BRE visits."
"I have done BRE visits for (town name withheld) in SE Colorado and this training was excellent. It continues my appreciation of BRE as an economic development strategy."
"Kudos for running the course in such an effective manner. I was able to gain a lot of insight during the eight-week period. Furthermore, we are exploring whether some elements of our BRE training can be delivered virtually, so it was great to see that web-based learning can be effective as a teaching tool."
"The BRE class was highly informative and applicable to my daily work in economic development. Learning the history, theory and practice of BRE has positively impacted my effectiveness as a business developer as I engage with employers in our community."
"The online BRE class provides an excellent platform and toolkit for undertaking a community business retention and expansion program. The online offering provides the flexibility needed for busy economic development professionals."
Independent learning option
Do you enjoy handling projects and tasks on your own? Review our introduction to BRE page to explore the process and learn as you go.