A Bel Air consultant is launching a monthly BRACWatch newsletter this week so small to midsized businesses can take full advantage of Maryland?s pending military growth.
The free newsletter is aimed mostly at the region?s business owners.
It provides information on subjects such as getting government contracts, marketing to new customers and pinning down some of the constantly shifting estimates of how many people will come to the area as the result of the base realignment and closure process.
Joseph Oricchio, of Talisman Consulting Services, will edit the newsletter while his company runs the Web site, BRACwatch.com.
Though the newsletter will be free, he said, he would also be promoting four- to five-hour blocks of his consulting services for more specific BRAC-related advice.
“Some of the larger companies in this area have people dealing just with BRAC ? three or four people, full-time,” Oricchio said. “Small to midsize companies don?t have that ? but they can buy a timeshare of a BRAC person.”
Other consultants, business owners, government officials and experts will help contribute to the newsletter?s content, Oricchio said.
The first edition includes an article by a Harford County Internet expert on how small companies can create and maintain a strong presence online, he said.
While economic development directors and BRAC managers from Harford, Cecil and Howard counties have also pledged to provide information, Oricchio said, the newsletter could be useful for residents and government officials seeking more information on BRAC numbers, processes and anticipated impact.
“It?s assumed that if someone?s a government official, they?ll be all over BRAC, but that?s not always the case,” he said.
Information for government will be more generic and focused on the numbers, “so that when they?re sitting in a meeting and are asked point-blank about BRAC, they?re not sitting with their jaw hanging open.”
Harford County?s Office of Economic Development would give BRACWatch all the same information available to other businesses, but the newsletter would handle the analysis and additional advice, Harford County Economic Development Director James Richardson said.
“This BRAC is very complex, and having someone to drill down behind the numbers is very important for anyone interested in it,” Richardson said.
Subscription to the BRACWatch newsletter is available through the Web site.
