Remember the Choke at Doak and Free Shoes University? Remember the ankle twisting, eye-gouging, blown calls? Burt Reynolds and Erin Andrews? When it comes to sports, Gainesville and Tallahassee have long been tough competitors who battle for the public’s attention.

But there’s rivalry off the field as well.
When companies look for a college town in which to locate in North Florida, Gainesville and Tallahassee are in the thick of the battle. And for the winner it’s more than just a battle for bragging rights; it’s a competition that can produce high-quality jobs, a stronger economy and opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovative businesses.
To get a better feel for how these two cities might compare in the eyes of appraising business owners, we took at look at their strengths and challenges. Here’s what we found:

Already facing a tight budget year, the City of Gainesville will have to pay an extra $2 million into its employee retirement plans in the 2011 fiscal year because the recession has hurt earnings on retirement investments that the
plans own.

The city’s contribution for the retirement plans will go from $2.6 million per year to $4.5 million, a 75 percent jump.
Investments in Gainesville’s General Employees Plan lost 16.4 percent in the 2008 fiscal year and 1.8 percent in 2009. The Consolidated Police Officers’ and Firefighters’ Plan lost 16.2 percent in the 2008 fiscal year and 3.8 percent in 2009.
In the past, Gainesville’s $400 million in retirement investments earned more than 10 percent annually, but declining earnings in the stock market prompted the city to lower its projected long-term return to 8.5 percent.

You’ve probably read about workers “going postal” and figured workplace violence could never occur at your business. But the chances of it happening are more common than you think.
Two million people are the victims of workplace violence each year, according to one estimate from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. And experts are worried the problem may be growing due to the pressures the recession is putting on workers.
Given those concerns, it’s important to have a strategy in place to protect your employees and your business, suggests Carolyn Buchanan, who has led discussions on workplace violence and will be conducting a workshop on the subject in October.

If you want to separate your business from the competition you, need to concentrate on building your brand.
That was the core message from a recent branding workshop sponsored by the Gainesville chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association. The workshop, which drew more than 80 businesspeople to Pugh Hall at the University of Florida, offered dozens of ideas to help improve brands, including these seven: