business roundtable report
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MA YORJA C KS ONS
BUS IN ES S
ROUN DT A B LE
June 2013
CONCERNS& RECOMMENDATIONS
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Edna B. Jackson, Mayor
Carolyn Bell
Tom Bordeaux
Van R. Johnson, II
Mary Osborne
John Hall
Mary Ellen Sprague
Estella Edwards Shabazz
Tony Thomas
Post 1 At-Large
Post 2 At-Large
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
MAYOR& ALDERMAN
CITYSTAFF
Taffanye YoungBureau Chief
Community & Economic Development Bureau
Tom StephensManagement Services Coordinator
Community & Economic Development Bureau
Margaret WilliamsChief of Staff, Office of Assistant City Manager
Administrative & Community Services
CITYMANAGERStephanie S. Cutter
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BUSINESSROUNDTABLEPARTICIPANTS
Alderwoman Carolyn BellCity Council Representative
Greg Parker, The Parker CompaniesChairman, Business Roundtable
Jennifer AbshireAbshire Public Relations
Ken BiancoJCB North America
Chris BlaineBarnett Educ/DeRenne Ave. Bus. Assoc.
Dana BraunCreative Coast, Inc.
Jim ConeGeorgia Power
Sylvester FormeyVanguard Companies
Erwin FriedmanSavannah Land Company
Brynn GrantSEDA/World Trade Center Savannah
Karen GuinnJCB North America
Bill HubbardSavannah Chamber
Brett HulmeSav. Reg. Central Labor Council
Kevin JacksonEnviroVac
Roy JacksonJackson Brothers Enterprises
Corey JonesLucky Savannah
Ruel Joyner24e/Downtown Bus. Assoc.
Kevin LawverRails Machine, LLC
Pat MathisPat Mathis Construction
Chris MillerIlluminomics
Diana MorrisonAdvertising Specialty Services
Mary Nestor-HarperMJNH Consulting
Michael OwensTourism Leadership Council
Benjamin Polote, Sr.The Polote Corporation
James RilesRiles & Assoc. Financial Services
Paul RobinsonPell Properties, LLC
Trip TollisonSavannah EconomicDevelopment Authority
Dwana TurnerE.P.I.C. Consulting
Mike VaquerVaquer Firm
Henry Wilfong, Jr.National Assoc. of SmallDisadvantaged Businesses
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TABLEOFCONTENTS
Page 2
Page 4
Page 5
Page 8
Page 9
Page 11
Page 13
Page 15
Page 18
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
1. EXECUTIVESUMMARY
2. VISION
2. PROCESS
3. KEYCONCERNS
4. CONCERNS& RECOMMENDATIONS
COMMUNICATION
CUSTOMERSERVICE
PROCESSES
ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT
5. SUMMARY& NEXTSTEPS
6. APPENDIX
DASHBOARD
ROUNDTABLERESEARCH
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EXECUTIVESUMMARY
In July 2012, Mayor Edna Jackson assembled a group of business owners to serve as the rst Mayors
Business Roundtable. The Roundtable was formed in response to frustraons expressed on the part of
the business community. Rather than having a defensive posture, the Mayor pursued an open and
collaborave approach to address the concerns of business owners. There was a willingness within
the business community to parcipate when called upon by the Mayor, and business leaders began
working with City sta to idenfy local services and policies that impact businesses.
In addion to assessing local services, the Roundtable undertook research to idenfy best pracces
and key elements to make the City of Savannah the best city in which to do business.
Opportunies for improvement were idened in four key areas; Communicaons, Customer Service,
Processes and Economic Development. We want to recognize that the City has made eorts toimprove services to businesses including automaon of the perming process for new developments;
creaon of City liaisons to assist business owners and developers with navigang the development
process, the development of a business assistance directory and the creaon of a review team to
assess and make improvements to informaon regarding business assistance on the City of
Savannahs website.
Major themes that arose during Roundtable meengs include:
Establishing a base line for how City services funcon currently so that the City can measure its
progress.
Creang a dashboard to measure and quickly communicate progress to the public.
Maintaining a connecon with the business community by assembling the Roundtable on an
annual basis to review progress and revisit business concerns and recommendaons.
Establishing a sub-commiee of the Roundtable to serve as a sounding board to lter strategies
and oer feedback to City sta as they implement improvements.
In closing, this report represents the culminaon of the eorts of business leaders who volunteered
their me to work collaboravely with the City. Local businesses are an important part of the
community and have a vested interest in the citys growth and prosperity. This report presents the
concerns and recommendaons of the Mayors Business Roundtable. The Roundtable worked hard to
ensure that the recommendaons provided were achievable. It is the hope of the Roundtable that
the Mayor and Alderman will give strong consideraon to the ideas put forth and make every eort to
implement the recommendaons wherever feasible.
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THECITYOFSAVANNAHWILLBETHEBESTCITYINWHICHTO
DOBUSINESS.
VISION
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Mayor Edna Jacksons VisionIn her 2012 inaugural address , Mayor Edna Jackson commied to becoming more responsive to theneeds of local businesses. Her objecve was to engage local businesses in a collaborave eort to
improve the City of Savannahs services to the business community.
In an eort to meet this objecve she established the Mayors Business Roundtable. The Business
Roundtables purpose was to provide a forum for producve discussion on the issues, ideas and
plans for the future of Savannahs small business community.
Mayor Jackson appointed Alderman Carol Bell as City Council liaison to the Business Roundtable.
Local business owner, Greg Parker was asked to serve as Business Roundtable Chairperson, with
sta support provided by the City of Savannah.
Convening the Mayors Business RoundtableThe Mayor invited business leaders to the rst Business Roundtable meeng in July 2012 to
determine how Savannah could improve its services. The rst meeng of the Mayors Business
Roundtablehad over 25 business owners in aendance. At that meeng, the parcipants compiled
a list of issues and concerns that they felt impede the business process and began to oer
recommendaons to address those areas of concern.
Based on the feedback received, the list of concerns developed by the parcipants was categorized
into four key areas: Communicaons, Customer Service, Processes and Economic Development.
Under each category, addional areas were idened. Communicaon/Markeng of the Citysbusiness services and beer internal communicaon and coordinaon between City departments
fell under Communicaons. The need for customer service training improvement and the
promoon of a City-wide customer service culture was a subset of Customer Service. Improving
the license and permit approval process, request for proposals and procurement processes, exisng
ordinances and more transparent regulaons and policies came under Processes. Finally, general
concerns around economic development, including the M/WBE program and engaging young
entrepreneurs, were a subset of Economic Development.As the group began to meet, the vision of the Roundtable expanded to: The City of Savannah will be
the best city in which to do business.
PROCESS
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CommunicaonHow the City shares informaon internally and externally.
Customer ServiceThe Citys culture on how sta interacts with cizens, customers andeach other.
ProcessesAnquated and inecient ow of systems and processes that moveinformaon to the next step.
Economic DevelopmentHow do we dene it as a community and what role does everyone
play in its success?
KEYCONCERNS
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Concerns
The Business Roundtable inially focused on communicaons, including the Citys communicaon of
services to external customers as well as internal communicaon among sta.
Concerns regarding external communicaons largely centered around the percepon that the City
does not clearly communicate its vision, funcons, and requirements to the business community.
Secondly, there was a concern that the City was not markeng its own services and successes to the
external community. The Business Roundtable idened this lack of external markeng as a barrier
to business recruitment and economic investment.
Regarding internal communicaons, the Business Roundtable idened poor internal communicaon
and weak inter-agency coordinaon as barriers to having a business friendly city. The Business
Roundtable was concerned about poor communicaon among City of Savannah sta and the inability
for the business community to speak directly with a decision maker. Another primary concern was
that local government and other government agencies have dierent requirements, processes, and/
or funcons. These enes do not clearly communicate with each other or the public.
Communicaon ConcernsCommunicaon/Markeng of Business Services
The Citys communicaon/markeng strategy is limited.
Connuous communicaon with the business community is not provided.
City is not communicang small wins.
Various government enes and agencies have dierent requirements and funcons which are
not communicated well.
Beer Internal Communicaon & Coordinaon
It does not appear that City sta talk to one another, resulng in mixed messages to the public.
Communicaon with sta that has decision making authority is limited.
Local governments and other agencies do not communicate or coordinate together.
COMMUNICATIONS
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Recommendations
Ranked highest to lowest priorityCommunicaon/Markeng of Business Services
1. Create a public dashboard/scorecard to track economic/business metrics and implementaon of
recommendaons.
2. Idenfy business development liaison (Sherpa) and acvely promote their role and contact
informaon.
3. Need a mul-faceted markeng plan to promote business services and incenves; and to promote
Savannah as the best city in which to do business.
4. Use 311 as the primary City phone lisng in the phone book and list departments alphabecally
rather than under bureau names, which the average person will not know or understand.
5. Ensure City data is publicly available and easily understood.
6. To improve communicaons keep messages simple, more diverse, and communicate more oen.
7. City Economic Development Director should include markeng as part of the posions focus.
8. Use local businesses to tell the Citys success stories.
9. Provide beer markeng of Development Services Workshops.
Beer Internal Communicaon & Coordinaon
1. Idenfy all exisng economic development enes in Savannah and their missions/funcons.
2. Provide a user friendly City chart that idenes sta and their responsibilies.
3. Convene internal departments and clearly dene their roles, then engage the outside
organizaons in geng on one page.
COMMUNICATIONS
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Concerns
Customer service was an issue that the Business Roundtable members spent considerable me
discussing, parcularly in regards to how customer service can signicantly impact a Citys business
development culture.
Concerns centered around training and facilitang a culture change within the organizaon. Business
Roundtable parcipants recognized that poor customer service could be a funcon of individual
behavior, a lack of high-quality, tailored training and/or a poor understanding of how customer
service impacts the success of businesses in the City.
Customer Service ConcernsCustomer Service Training Improvement
Exisng customer service training is ineecve and/or too infrequent.
Exisng sta includes employees who are not customer-friendly.
Sta does not recognize the public/cizens as their customer/clients.
Sta understanding of the fundamentals of business growth and development, and its importance
to the City, is inadequate.
Promote a City-wide Customer Service Culture
Cizen-clients are not always treated with respect.
Communicaon is not always polite and helpful.
Sta is not always available to assist the public/cizens.
CUSTOMERSERVICE
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Recommendations
Ranked highest to lowest priorityCustomer Service Training Improvement
1. City should assess prospecve and current sta for relaonal competencies, i.e. ability to
manage internal thoughts and feelings (self) as well as the interpersonal/social environment
(relaonal) challenges.
2. Provide customer service training that highlights the economic impact of business choosing to
locate in Savannah.
3. Provide customer service training by professional disciplines so that sta can see its relevance and
learn how to apply it to their roles.
4. Create a mantra for City employees that encompasses how they will deliver customer service,
i.e. My job is to remove obstacles or My paycheck is directly related to how well I serve my
customers.
5. Create an incenve program for front line City sta to develop soluons, change behaviors and x
problems (similar to Citys former Eureka employee program).
Promote a City-wide Customer Service Culture
1.
Use mystery shoppers, cizen-clients, to test customer service and address idened
deciencies.
2. Services delivery should immediately be followed up by a short exit survey sent electronically, to
capture what the customers experience was like.
3. Move to E-Government for every service possiblemaking payments, compleng applicaons,
accessing informaon. This will free people from having to make a call/visit an oce and free
sta to focus on crical and/or non-roune situaons.
4. Provide beer promoon of the 311 number to the business community.
5. Build an eecve business survey and send it out annually to all business license holders.
CUSTOMERSERVICE
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Concerns
Inecient and convoluted processes were idened as a major concern of businesses. Poorly
communicated processes negavely impact business start up, licensing and perming, contract
bidding and business development acvies in Savannah.
Major processes idened as most crical include the business licensing process, site plan review and
perming processes, zoning review and variance approval processes. The minority or women owned
business enterprise cercaon process, as well as high level regulatory or legislave processes
including local, state and federal governments also need further aenon.
Processes ConcernsLicenses & Approval Processes
The steps in the various business approval processes are unclear, not transparent. If steps were
clearer it would not require an actual person to explain it all.
Have to go to mulple oces to obtain various approvals, i.e. tax cercate/licensing.
It is unclear whether City sta feedback and direcons are requirements of the law or just
suggesons/recommendaons, causing businesses and/or developers to be confused abut
what acons they are required to do.
RFP & Procurement Processes
Bid requests are changed or pulled at the last minute cosng vendors me and money in
preparing their bid proposals.
Clarity is lacking regarding purchasing policies and/or pracces related to: local parcipaon;
M/WBE parcipaon; and using the database of suppliers to idenfy companies and skill sets.
Statutes, Regulaons & Policies
Some exisng regulaons/policies are a barrier to business.
The inventory tax is burdensome and pushing businesses out of Savannah, parcularly
manufacturing.
The impact of Unied Zoning Ordinance on businesses is not really understood.
The role/purpose of the Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) in relaon to the City of
Savannah is unclear.
Historic Review Board recommendaons and decisions seem arbitrary.
PROCESSES
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Recommendations
Ranked highest to lowest priorityLicenses & Approval Processes
1. Create a Business Advocate/Ombudsmen posion with the weight of City Managers oce to
walk business customers through the maze of requirements or eliminate the maze.
2. Develop a Doing Business Guide with simple narrave that idenes resources and provides a
checklist or ow chart that maps out business processes (starng/ expanding a business,
perming, site development, etc.).
3. Create a one-stop shop (facility), with City licensing and development approval processes under
one roof.
4. Gather baseline data on current length of me it takes to complete exisng processes; then set
goals for reducing the me (perming, zoning changes, inspecons, etc.).
5. Get all processes set up online, i.e. bill pay, compleng applicaons, requesng services, etc.
6. Consider co-locaon of City and County business services where feasible.
7. Provide claricaon for the end user on what funcons fall under the City and what funcons fall
under other governmental bodies County, MPC, State, etc.
8. Host monthly sessions with City and related sta at one locaon, where business people can drop
in to ask quesons/get answers about projects and processes.
RFP & Procurement Processes
1. Assess purpose and eecveness of programs, processes and vendor lists and make
improvements to all.
2. Purchasing needs to communicate frequently with companies to advise of bid changes and only
open projects the City intends to undertake.
Statutes, Regulaons & Policies
1. Consider abolishing the Citys inventory tax and the excise tax in the County.
2. Idenfy regulaons that are the biggest barriers to business development (especially food and
beverages) and make modicaons wherever possible.
3.
Train City sta and test to ensure they are fully knowledgeable of all regulaons that relate totheir work and able to clearly communicate them to the public.
4. Say Yes to business ideas unless your regulaons clearly say no. Make Yes the default.
5. Assess the role of the City versus MPC and determine if there is duplicaon or whether both are
needed.
6. Survey or shadow businesses as they navigate the zoning/MPC process, in order to idenfy
barriers and opportunies for improvements.
7. Provide fee rebates/refunds when economy is slow and businesses are making less prot.
PROCESSES
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Concerns
Economic development is an area with a broad denion and scope of work. The major concerns
idened were the lack of a clear delineaon of dues and responsibilies among area agencies and
how we dene economic development as a community.
Economic development concerns covered a wide range of issues including comprehensive economic
development planning, workforce development, entrepreneurship, minority and women owned
business development, internaonal trade, and industry specic issues in elds such as
manufacturing, technology and service industries.
Many of the concerns idened by the Business Roundtable were also issues that came up in later
research ndings and reports from the Naonal League of Cies and other cies across the country.
These concerns are not unique to Savannah, such as a lack of cohesive vision, workforce skills being
mismatched with industry needs and procedural barriers to small business growth.
Economic Development Concerns
Economic Development
Economic development & small business is not well dened in the City of Savannah.
The City lacks a comprehensive Economic Development Plan that addresses issues involving the
overall economy (local, state, naonal, internaonal) as well as specic sectors.
Exisng workforce skills do not match the needs of prospecve employers.
The Citys economic development goals and progress are not clearly communicated or reported.
M/WBE Program
M/WBEs need addional training and development.
Opportunies for M/WBE business development are limited.
There is an insucient number of qualied M/WBEs in certain elds.
Pracce of solicing involvement of unrelated M/WBEs into City bids to achieve M/WBE goals.
Engaging Young Entrepreneurs
There is not enough encouragement of creave & technology-based start-ups.
Young entrepreneurs have limited involvement/engagement in tradional business networks or
City eorts.
ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT
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Recommendations
Ranked highest to lowest priorityEconomic Development
1. City needs to develop a comprehensive economic development plan that arculates a clear vision
for economic development in the city.
2. Consider Best Pracces of top U.S. cies when planning for Savannah and pursue feasible
strategies locally.
3. Develop a scorecard and track metrics for economic development in the city.
4.
City needs to bring all City related economic development enes (EDD, SEC, SDRA) together toclarify funcons, roles and coordinaon and to minimize overlap.
5. Need a one stop locaon for business capital needs, nancial understanding and business
assistance.
M/WBE Program
1. Ensure that inclusiveness and diversity are goals of the Citys economic development eorts.
2. Oer training to build business skills of minority and women -owned businesses and tailor it to
meet the needs of these businesses.
3. Develop business incubators.
4. Create a beer veng process to ensure companies are in fact cered M/WBEs and that
M/WBEs have a history of performing the type of work idened in the bid.
Engaging Young Entrepreneurs
1. Idenfy or develop mentoring and networks for new entrepreneurs and businesses.
2. Idenfy local businesses with computer/ technology jobs and share job openings with area
colleges so graduates will know of them and move to or stay in Savannah.
3. Promote a more computer-skilled workforce.
4. Consider developing business incubators and loan programs for high-tech businesses.
ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT
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SummaryThe Mayors Business Roundtable was tasked with convening representaves of the business
community to gather concerns and recommendaons of business owners and to report back to Mayor
Edna Jackson by June 2013. It was the Roundtables goal to meet this deadline while providing clear,
concise and feasible recommendaons that could be implemented to improve the environment for
businesses in the City of Savannah.
It is the hope that the implementaon of these recommendaons, wherever feasible, will help the City
to aain the Roundtables stated vision to be the best City in which to do business.
Next Steps Presentaon to City Council
City Manager Review of Roundtable Report
Feedback from City on Recommendaons to pursue
Convening of Roundtable Sub-Commiee to serve as sounding board for City sta
Annual Mayors Business Roundtable Review
SUMMARY& NEXTSTEPS
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APPENDIX
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DASHBOARD
One tool for displaying dened performance measurements or program implementaon is with a
dashboard. A dashboard collects data pertaining to key performance indicators and publishes all dataand metrics succinctly and clearly. Organizaons with dashboards can use the informaon for mar-
keng, performance enhancement, or performance management. A dashboard provides an organiza-
on with a tool to track its progress toward reaching idened objecves. Several examples are pre-
sented below.
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ROUNDTABLERESEARCH
Naonal League of CiesEconomic Development Trends Focusing on exisng and homegrown businesses.
Improving communicaons with the business community and reexamining how municipal
regulaons and processes help or hinder business and how they can best meet local business
needs.
Using foreign direct investment strategies as a tool to spur economic growth, parcularly in
smaller and medium-sized communies that may not insncvely be on the radar of internaonal
investors.
Leveraging the internet and social media to achieve economic development goals and to build
connecons to internaonal companies.
Supporngsmall business trade opportuniesby tapping local and regional service providers who
have experse, industry networks and access to the business community.
Leveraging polical leadership to elevate the legimacy of immigrant entrepreneurs and small
businessesin the work of local government and to improve trust between immigrant businesses
and government.
Partnering with higher educaon, including community colleges, to aract and
support internaonal students. According to the Associaon of Internaonal Educators,
internaonal students aending U.S. colleges and universies contributed $18.78 billion to the
U.S. economy during the 2009-
2010 academic year.
Employers are looking for higher-skilled workers, oen with some post-secondary educaon to ll
more specialized jobs. As such, an unskilled workforce and lack of mechanisms to upgrade worker
skills will negavely impact a citys ability to retain and grow businesses and aract new
investment. A citys home-grown economic compeveness is also directly ed to the skills and
abilies of its workforce, as these are the individuals that start businesses and drive future
innovaon.
Internaonal City/County Management Associaon and Naonal League of CiesCity & County Economic Development SurveyResearch ndings suggest that local policies that have the greatest impact on small business growth,dened as the growth in the number of new establishments under 99 employees, are providing
regulatory assistance and creang a supporve culture between the local public and private
sectors. Regulatory assistance includes one-stop shops and streamlining perming/zoning
processes. Creang a supporve culture means providing avenues for local small businesses to
engage with each other and to be heard by policy makers.
An example of how the City of Savannah is creang a culture of small business engagement is the
Mayors Business Roundtable, Mayors Small Business Conference and other forums.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/conferences/mcfarland-20111109.pdfhttp://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/conferences/mcfarland-20111109.pdfhttp://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/conferences/mcfarland-20111109.pdfhttp://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/conferences/mcfarland-20111109.pdfhttp://www.nlc.org/File%20Library/Find%20City%20Solutions/Research%20Innovation/Economic%20Development/strategies-for-globally-competitive-cities-gid-sep11.pdfhttp://www.nlc.org/File%20Library/Find%20City%20Solutions/Research%20Innovation/Economic%20Development/strategies-for-globally-competitive-cities-gid-sep11.pdfhttp://vimeo.com/33039930http://vimeo.com/33039930http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/city-solutions-and-applied-research/economic-development/2011-conference-resourceshttp://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/city-solutions-and-applied-research/economic-development/2011-conference-resourceshttp://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/research-innovation/economic-development/2011-conference-resources#Suppporting%202http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/research-innovation/economic-development/2011-conference-resources#Suppporting%202http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/research-innovation/economic-development/2011-conference-resources#Suppporting%202http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/research-innovation/economic-development/2011-conference-resources#Suppporting%202http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/research-innovation/economic-development/2011-conference-resources#Internationalhttp://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/research-innovation/economic-development/2011-conference-resources#Internationalhttp://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/research-innovation/economic-development/2011-conference-resources#Suppporting%202http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/research-innovation/economic-development/2011-conference-resources#Suppporting%202http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/city-solutions-and-applied-research/economic-development/2011-conference-resourceshttp://vimeo.com/33039930http://www.nlc.org/File%20Library/Find%20City%20Solutions/Research%20Innovation/Economic%20Development/strategies-for-globally-competitive-cities-gid-sep11.pdfhttp://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/conferences/mcfarland-20111109.pdfhttp://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/conferences/mcfarland-20111109.pdf -
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Naonal League of Cies & Internaonal Economic Development CouncilThe Role of Local Elected Ocials in Economic Development10 Things You Should Know
Your local economic strengths and weaknesses. A stronger understanding of your communitys
economic prole will help you create a realisc vision and strategies for economic development.
Your communitys place in the broader regional economy. With a rmer grasp of how your
community ts into the broader region, youre beer prepared to work with other jurisdicons to
share responsibility for regional economic success.
Your communitys economic development vision and goals. Local elected ocials can play a key
role in building consensus for a vision and goals that provide clear direcon for local economic
development.
Your communitys strategy to aain its goals. A strategic approach means linking economic
development goals to specic acvies, allocang a budget and sta to these acvies and
evaluang performance based on measurable outcomes.
Connecons between economic development and other city policies. When craing economic
development policies, it is essenal to consider how other city policies (e.g., transportaon or
housing) aect your economic development goals.
Your regulatory environment. Your communitys regulatory process should allow for mely,
reliable and transparent resoluon of issues facing businesses, while sll remaining true to your
long-term economic development vision.
Your local economic development stakeholders and partners. Local ocials should think
strategically on a project-by-project basis about who needs to be involved, the resources they
bring to the table, and what it will take to get them engaged.
The needs of your local business community. Local ocials can help create an environment that
supports the growth and expansion of local businesses, primarily by opening lines of
communicaon.
Your communitys economic development message. Citys need a clear, accurate and compelling
message that reects the local vision and that helps ensure broad support for economic
development projects undertaken by the city and its partners.
Your economic development sta. Local elected ocials will be more eecve in leading
economic development acvies to the extent that they forge strong relaonships with sta
members who work on these issues on a daily basis.
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Naonal League of CiesBest Pracces Case StudiesAsheville, NCThe greater Asheville, NC region is focused on supporng its next generaon of businesses by
providing support programs tailor-made for the areas assets and creang the culture and
connecons for entrepreneurs to thrive. The region provides important lessons for local governments
pursuing entrepreneurship eorts, specically the importance of having the right sta and partners,
playing the role of connector and doing your homework before creang new programs.
Longmont, COOver the last six years, the City of Longmont, Colorado, has strengthened its economic base by
providing local businesses with a variety of resources that improve their compeveness andstability. The history and pracces of the Longmont Economic Gardening Iniave provide lessons for
communies seeking to grow their local economies by nurturing local entrepreneurs.
The Roundtable encourages the City of Savannah to explore opportunies to improve its
compeveness, such as eliminaon of the inventory tax.
Scosdale, AZScosdale, has partnered with Arizona State University (ASU), to establish the SkySong Center, a
mulpurpose development designed to incubate and accelerate entrepreneurial startups from across
the globe and within the university by providing a one-stop-shop for budding entrepreneurs and
startups. The plans for SkySong were introduced aer two previous plans for the area were scrapped,and a lease and infrastructure agreement was worked out between ASU and Scosdale.
Seale, WAThe City of Seale has recently refocused its economic development to facilitate connecons, provide
on-the-ground services to businesses needing assistance and advocate for policies and service
changes as appropriate to improve Seales business climate.
The city created business advocates in its Oce of Economic Development (OED) to help businesses
navigate government processes and connect to resources. Interacons with individual businesses are
recorded and tracked by sta, ensuring proper follow-up and idencaon of systemac and
recurring problems.Addionally, OED hosts a well-aended, informal monthly networking event so the local business
community can connect with key polical, departmental and economic development stakeholders.
Seale also formed the new Citywide Business Advocacy Team (CBAT) to combat the frustraon of an
oen slow, uncoordinated and at mes contradictory perming process. CBAT is an
interdepartmental group with representaon from all of the major departments involved in
regulatory, zoning and economic development issues.
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Best Places for Business & CareersForbesNumerous rankings, lists and metrics exist which idenfy the top places for business, careers, small
business, entrepreneurship and other areas. Each year Forbes publishes their list of the Best Placesfor Business & Careersa list on which the City of Savannah aims to be ranked at the top.
The Forbes ranking looks at the 200 largest metropolitan stascal areas (MSA) in the U.S. and
considers twelve metrics relang to past and projected job growth, business and living costs, income
growth, educaonal aainment and projected economic growth. It also factors in quality of life issues
like crime rates, cultural and recreaonal opportunies and net migraon paerns, as well as the
number of highly ranked colleges in the area. Numerous sub-areas are idened and ranked
including; Cost of Doing Business, Economic Growth Projected, Educaonal Aainment, Income
Growth Rank, Job Growth Projected Rank, Net Migraon Rank.
Cies that ranked highest on the list typically had a strong university or two, provided a highly
educated workforce, a low cost of doing business, low crime rate, and a higher than average net
migraon.
The Savannah metro area came in ranked 145 out of 200 in 2013. While detailed data used to
determine the areas ranking is not published, the known criteria and published rankings allow for a
good understanding of what is required for a metro area to be compeve.
Metrics such as job growth, net migraon, projected economic growth, and income growth are to agreat extent causal in nature, meaning local policies and pracces do not directly impact their
trajectory. However, the other metrics used by Forbes, such as cost of business and living, educaon,
and quality of life factors such as crime, culture, and recreaon, have a direct causal relaonship with
the other economic growth measures. A focus on improving measures in these areas could have a
net posive impact on job, business, and income growth in Savannah.
Rank Metro Area Cost of Business Rank Job Growth Rank Education Rank
1 Provo UT 33 30 28
2 Raleigh NC 29 15 13
3 Fort Collins, CO 66 23 6
4 Des Moines, IA 37 35 54
5 Denver CO 130 45 18
6 Ogden UT 27 39 73
7 Lincoln NE 9 28 39
8 Dallas TX 160 18 43
9 Austin TX 165 3 16
10 Nashville TN 32 41 79
145 Savannah, GA 87 101 99
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Most Business Friendly CiesThumbtack SurveyThumbtack.com, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauman Foundaon, has released the results
from the second annual Thumbtack.com Small Business Survey. The study collected data from more
than 7,000 small business owners and oers direct insight into how business owners view their local
and state business environments, what they value, and what they need for a desirable business
environment.
Sander Daniels, co-founder of Thumbtack.com comments, "Some 7,000 businesses owners across the
country have told us that they care about a lot more than just taxesfor most businesses, simple
licensing regulaons and helpful training programs are even more important to their success."
Some of the key ndings include:
Professional licensing requirements were 30 percent more important than taxes in determining a
state's overall business-friendliness, conrming the ndings from last year's study. Furthermore,
this year's research revealed that 40 percent of U.S. small businesses are subject to licensing regu-
laons by mulple jurisdicons or levels of government.
Utah was the top rated state, and Ausn, TX was the top rated city. At the other end of the spec-
trum, Rhode Island and Newark, NJ were the lowest rated state and city.
The ease of obtaining health insurance was an important factor for many businesses. One-third of
small business owners rated obtaining and keeping health insurance as "Very Dicult," versus
only 6 percent who rated it "Very Easy."
Small businesses were relavely unconcerned with tax rates more than half of small business
owners felt they pay about the right share of taxes.
The top ranked cies for small business according to Thumbtacks survey were:
1. Ausn, Texas
2. Virginia Beach, Virginia
3. Houston, Texas
4. Colorado Springs, Colorado
5.
San Antonio, Texas
6. Nashville, Tennessee
7. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
8. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
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Elevate AusnRecognizing that small businesses are the foundaon of our local economy, the City of Ausnembarked on a City-wide project with a mission to encourage organizaonal changes that establish
Ausn as the Best Managed City with regard to small business development.
ElevateAusn: taking small business to new heights began when the City Council, the Small Business
Development Program (SBDP) and the Ausn Independent Business Alliance (AIBA) invited 50 small
business owners to a summit to share their percepons of how the City serves the needs of area
entrepreneurs. Based on this feedback, the City Council passed a resoluon requiring the City Manager
to develop policy recommendaons. These recommendaons were to take into account a review of
the current City policies, programs and procedures serving small businesses, as well as the input from
the summit.
Project GoalsFollowing the City Council resoluon, the City Manager tasked SBDP, a division of the Economic
Growth and Redevelopment Services Oce (EGRSO), with leading ElevateAusn. SBDP developed the
following project goals:
Achieving savings and eciencies for both small business owners and City government
Enhancing City processes & procedures to facilitate the opening, operaon & expansion of small
businesses
Creang an overall environment that values the economic and cultural role of small businesses
City of Ausn Working TogetherWith these goals in mind, SBDP met with the department directors who work closely with small
businesses and reviewed relevant feedback from the summit. The departments most aected by the
feedback were directed to select two acons -projects or organizaonal changes -to put in place in
the next 12-18 months.
Eight departments presented nearly 20 acons to take in the next year to respond to the concerns of
the small business community. Acons chosen focused on fostering coordinaon among departments,
streamlining processes for business owners and providing premier customer service.
Responding to the CommunityIn the next phase of the project, the departments rened their acon items and developed plans for
implementaon. A report was then generated from these plans, illustrang how the City is now
addressing the needs of business owners. The highlight of this phase of the project was a community
presentaon where the departments presented their chosen acons to the original small business
owner focus group and City sta.
http://austintexas.gov/department/small-business-development-programhttp://austintexas.gov/department/small-business-development-programhttp://austintexas.gov/department/economic-growthhttp://austintexas.gov/department/economic-growthhttp://austintexas.gov/department/economic-growthhttp://austintexas.gov/department/economic-growthhttp://austintexas.gov/department/small-business-development-programhttp://austintexas.gov/department/small-business-development-program -
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Invest RaleighVirtual One Stop ShopThrough Invest Raleigh, the Raleigh Economic Development Partnership brings a clear understandingof the resources available to assist business owners, developers and investors as part of a
coordinated economic development program. It is a partnership of the City of Raleigh Economic
Development, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance (DRA), the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, the Raleigh
Area Development Authority (RADA), Raleigh Economic Development, and the Greater Raleigh
Convenon and Visitors Bureau. Invest Raleigh provides a virtual one stop shop for news, data, and
programs pertaining to economic development in Raleigh.
The Invest Raleigh website funcons as a primary markeng tool to adverse the areas high ranking
on lists from Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek and others. The site lists accolades received, local
aracons, important facts & data, relocaon and quality of life resources, hospitality informaon,
economic indicators, and access to current development acvity and development plans.
Invest Raleigh is also ulized for business recruitment, expansion, and retenon. The site lists
targeted industries and recruits retail businesses by highlighng downtown market characteriscs
and other shopping centers. It also idenes business support organizaons, highlights the local
workforce, lists commercial buildings and sites for sale or lease, provides transportaon informaon
and important maps and demographic informaon.
The site provides a central repository of informaon regarding economic incenves, including historic
preservaon incenves, the downtown loan program, Urban Progress Zone, aordable housing
nance, City/County joint venture aordable housing projects for qualied non-prot developers of
aordable housing, Community Development Block Grant, facade grants and green jobs programs.
Invest Raleigh also provides links to informaon regarding Small Business Administraon assistance,
bids and Request for Proposals with the City of Raleigh, the Small Disadvantaged Minority and
Women Owned Business (SDMWOB) Program, and links to innovaon and entrepreneurship
resources in local government, private industry, local universies and others.
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