Extension Works: The cost of quiet

Why communities can’t afford passive business engagement

NATE BERNITZ

Some of the most important conversations between local government and business owners never happen.

In many communities, interaction between local government and businesses happens only when necessary: a permit application, a complaint or a problem that’s boiled over. To some extent this is intentional, but more aptly it’s simply the default.

That kind of interaction is essential, but it isn’t designed to surface early concerns, explore emerging opportunities or build shared understanding over time. Much of what shapes a local economy happens quietly — or doesn’t happen, quietly — outside those moments.

Consider a restaurant owner who had been putting off a major renovation for years. The building needed work — roof, electrical, the kitchen exhaust system — but she worried that asking questions would invite scrutiny she didn’t want, opening doors she couldn’t close.

So, she waited. When she finally sat down with someone from the town, the conversation was less fraught than she’d expected. There was a façade-improvement program she’d been eligible for all along, and the permitting questions she’d dreaded had answers. She made the investment, but she’d lost three years.

The long-term health of a community depends heavily on businesses already rooted there. Existing employers account for a large share of job growth. They make ongoing decisions about whether to expand, stay put or scale back — and those decisions are shaped, quietly, by how much confidence they have in the place.

These businesses are living with the same pressures local governments are trying to manage: housing costs, workforce availability, infrastructure constraints and regulatory complexity. They experience zoning rules, development standards and review processes not as abstract policy but as real constraints on what they can do. Over time, those experiences shape how much confidence business owners have in a place and how willing they are to make long-term bets there.

When engagement is mostly reactive, local government often has limited visibility into the experience of doing business in the community. A business considering expansion might err on the side of caution. A commercial property owner might put off renovations. A developer may set their sights on a neighboring community instead.

While ribbon-cuttings often take center stage, business success takes many forms: A small business owner executes a succession plan when they retire; a manufacturer adapts to serve a new niche; a side hustle grows into a full-time operation and hires its first employee.

Often, though, there are underlying stresses preventing those stories from coming true: A craft brewery that’s outgrown its space without a plan for expansion; a downtown retail owner planning to retire soon without a succession plan; a manufacturer that’s only running two shifts a day because prospective employees can’t find housing.

This is the gap that UNH Cooperative Extension’s Community Business Engagement program is designed to help close. Working with communities across New Hampshire — including most recently in Exeter — the program helps local leaders build the habits, relationships and systems to surface these dynamics before they become crises or missed opportunities.

It’s about learning how policies, procedures and local conditions are being experienced before something rises to the level of an application or appeal. It requires listening early enough, and often enough, that patterns surface, trust builds and relationships turn collaborative.

Business leaders want to understand how decisions are made, how standards are interpreted and who to talk to when questions arise. They notice when requirements have real-world effects that weren’t obvious on paper. They experience attitudes, not just decisions.

Addressing these attitudes is as much about culture and habits as it is about funding, staffing and formal economic development initiatives. It also means actively confounding expectations, because many business owners have already decided the conversation isn’t worth having. They expect bureaucracy, scrutiny or polite indifference.

Communities that prove otherwise, consistently and early, change the calculus. There are numerous models, some of which rely on volunteers, for becoming more intentional about listening. Approaches can range from an impromptu conversation at the grocery store to a check-in email to a business tour and informational interview. Before launching any of these efforts, community leaders would do well to develop a plan openly, be transparent about how information will be used, and build in time to reflect on what they’re hearing.

In my experience working in New Hampshire communities, including those with and without dedicated professional economic development staff and volunteer committees, capacity is shaped and constrained by time, systems and competing priorities.

Maintaining regular, year-after-year contact with businesses of different sizes and sectors depends on having up-to-date contact information, internal coordination and the kind of consistency and follow-through that private companies often bring to customer service and long-term client relationships.

Intent still matters. Communities that earn a reputation for listening and trying to solve problems are more likely to be places where business leaders see local government as a partner in shared success.

One of the benefits of taking engagement seriously is that it often helps separate signal from noise. Not every concern requires action, and not every comment should drive policy change. But when similar themes surface repeatedly, across different businesses and sectors, they provide useful context for planning, policy discussion and future investments. That context is hard to assemble if the only information available comes from isolated transactions.

Local chambers and civic organizations are natural partners, bringing their own relationships, insights and initiatives to the table. There are resource providers eager to support New Hampshire businesses. But business leaders tend to be judicious with their time and wary of outreach that doesn’t lead anywhere. The opportunity is real, but it has to be earned.

Small efforts compound. A clearer understanding of local constraints can reduce friction later. Shared expectations often make future interactions smoother. Over time, trust becomes less fragile, and the transactional work that still needs to happen tends to go better, because it’s grounded in a broader relationship.

None of this looks the same from one community to the next, and local engagement can’t overcome the broader forces that shape the state’s economy. But it can help communities understand how those forces are being felt on the ground, clarify what is within local control and identify where modest adjustments can make a meaningful difference over time. Consistent engagement may tip the scales for business retention, expansion and recruitment, or help keep the doors of a valued local business open.

Nate Bernitz, MPA, is a community and economic development field specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension.