Business Incentives - Treat Yourself!

In the dog training world, Positive Reinforcement Training consists of treating your dog to to achieve good or desired behavior as opposed to punishing bad behavior. PRT is the only method we use for our Barbet. So, can you apply this same behavior to your Business? Absolutely, you can!

Government Agencies, most notably the Industrial Development Agencies or IDAs, as they are commonly known, provide incentives or treats to businesses for good behavior. If you are planning to relocate, build, expand, or purchase equipment and you are going to hire more employees (all good behaviors), you definitely want to speak to your local IDA! This is the exact behavior they wish to reward businesses for as it is essential to economic stability and growth in the region. Their treats come in various forms from property tax abatement to sales tax waivers to cost of power reduction. Each governing IDA has their own bag of treats to offer, and none are the same as others. So, it is imperative to contact the governing IDA in the physical geography where your business is located in or will be located.

There are some caveats to this, of course. IDA Incentives do normally not apply to retail or professional services firms. However, if you are one of the disadvantaged enterprise businesses (WBE, MBE, DBE, etc) and fall into either of these categories, there may be some exclusions in your local IDA regulations that will permit a review of your eligibility.

You can normally identify your local IDA by asking your business consultant, lawyer, banker, or accountant. For those of you outside Western New York, we are happy to assist you in identifying your local IDA.

For local blog followers, here is a list of the more commonly used Western New York IDAs:

Amherst IDA, Lancaster IDA, Clarence IDA, Concord IDA, hamburg IDA, ECIDA (Erie County), Niagara County IDA, Orleans County IDA, Genesee County IDA, Monroe County IDA, Cattaraugus County IDA, Olean IDA, Salamanca IDA, and Chautauqua County IDA.

So for your next expansion, equipment purchase, acquisition, or hiring phase, be sure to treat yourself and investigate how your local Industrial Development Agency may be able to help!