The cover of Lehigh Valley Manufacturers’ Guide for Growth, a new comprehensive financial resource guide Concannon Miller has released specifically for manufacturers.

There’s a reason high performance manufacturing has been identified as one of the four target sectors of the Lehigh Valley. The region’s economic assets are well-suited for this expanding industry, which is growing at a much faster rate in the Lehigh Valley than in the rest of Pennsylvania and much of the country.

Concannon Miller – a tax, accounting, and consulting firm based in Hanover Township, Northampton County – has released a new comprehensive financial resource guide specifically for manufacturers, ensuring regional firms can be competitive and profitable, and take advantage of all available resources.

“We’ve always sought to provide much more to our manufacturing clients than just tax and accounting compliance services,” said Andrea L. Brady, CPA, a Concannon Miller shareholder and head of the firm’s manufacturing and distribution services niche.

“Our new Lehigh Valley Manufacturers’ Guide for Growth provides local manufacturers with a multitude of resource opportunities available to them to help them increase cash flow and grow their business,” Brady said.

Visit here to download a PDF copy of the guide.

Concannon Miller is an investor with the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), and the Lehigh Valley Manufacturers’ Guide for Growth includes several financing services provided or administered by LVEDC.

This includes Pennsylvania First Grants, state grants that generally pay $1,000 per every one new job created. The funding can be used for various purposes, including land and building improvements, new equipment, and job training.

The guide also discusses LVEDC’s recently-launched Lehigh Valley Lending Network, where businesses can get loan offers from up to 15 banks through one application process, streamlining and simplifying the process for companies to determine the lowest cost options to finance their project.

“Concannon Miller has done an excellent job with their resource guide, which provides a comprehensive outline of the many financial resources available for manufacturers both here at LVEDC and elsewhere in the Lehigh Valley,” said John Kingsley, LVEDC Vice President of Finance.

The guide details such areas as tax benefits for manufacturers, job creation funding, construction and equipment funding, operational improvement assistance, employee training funding, research and development grants, recruitments assistance, and more.

It also provides information about services available from such companies as the Manufacturers Resource Center, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Lehigh University’s Small Business Development Center, and many others.

The economic output of the Lehigh Valley region is $35.4 billion, the 75th largest of the 381 largest statistical metropolitan areas in the United States. Manufacturing makes up $4.95 billion of that GDP, and the region’s manufacturing sector grew by 4.1 percent from 2013 to 2014.

“In previous years, manufacturing had slipped in the Lehigh Valley, but that trend appears to be reversed,” said Don Cunningham, LVEDC President and CEO. “Manufacturing output is up and growing in the region, and the Lehigh Valley outpaces the rest of Pennsylvania and much of the country in manufacturing growth.”

Concannon Miller can help manufacturers navigate with the various agencies and programs to determine the route for maximizing their opportunities to get their business on the path for greater success, according to the company.

With roots in the Lehigh Valley dating back to the 1920s, Concannon Miller has been serving manufacturers for decades, and is a member of Manufacturing CPAs, a selective business group for the nation’s top CPA firms serving manufacturers.