Since fiscal year 2010, the Town of Lexington has had 319 businesses open to serve its residents. What is its secret when so many other municipalities are struggling with economic woes? The answer may lie in Lexington’s approach to working with businesses.
Lexington opened its Business and Development Services Center in September 2010 in an effort to make owning or operating a business in town more efficient, said Jennifer Dowden, events and media coordinator.
The one-stop center is housed on the third floor at the Town’s Municipal Complex and includes staff from building inspections, business licensing, economic development, mapping, zoning and members of the police department’s Community Action Team.
“The new centralized location has created a smoother process for current and potential business owners, as well as staff who are now in close proximity to each other, helping to address any need or concern,” Dowden said.
The Town of Lexington has a local vendor preference program. Local businesses are placed on the vendor preference registry after completing an application and certification form. “We would still go through the RFP and RFQ process, but registry members would receive first bid preference,” explained Dowden. “This helps keep the business local and boosts the local economy.”
Recently the town expanded its preference program to include businesses located in Newberry, Richland, Kershaw and Fairfield counties. Lexington promotes the registry of local vendors to contractors bidding on town projects. The town requires bidders on large projects to document their attempt to include local vendors in the proposals.
“The town is always delighted to see businesses choose our community to call home,” Dowden said. “We hope through our efforts with the BDSC and the Local Vendor Preference Program that our business community will continue to grow for years to come.”
Lexington’s success is an example of the types of steps cities can take to be business friendly and promote economic development. Communities support and attract businesses when they streamline their permitting process, make economic development part of every policy, and understand the role each city department plays in economic development, according to Dr. Barry Bluestone, director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University in Boston. Bluestone spoke about creating business-friendly cities at the Municipal Association’s 2011 Annual Meeting.
On the other hand, cities deter businesses when they have excessive site costs, a slow review process, and when they rely too heavily on subsidies as a means to attract investment rather than as a tool to close deals, according to Bluestone.
The Town of Mount Pleasant works hard to attract industry and local businesses and to provide assistance to existing business.
The town restructured its permitting process for an easy one-stop experience for developers, said Business Development Coordinator Quin Stinchfield.
On its website, the town has a commercial approval process section. The section contains information and a flowchart to guide users through the design review process and the permitting process. Users can also track the progress of their permit on the site.
The town also works to cultivate future small business owners. Its “Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur” educational seminar series is free and covers topics ranging from franchising to business etiquette, Stinchfield said.
Mount Pleasant’s business incubator, BIZ INC, helps guide and accelerate companies in the creative industry through the difficult start-up phase of development. An Entrepreneur and Business Expo event spotlights local businesses, provides training and development opportunities, and markets the town as business-friendly.
Mount Pleasant finds numerous ways to communicate with its local businesses, whether it’s through business retention visits or through a Twitter account @mtpleasantBiz set up for the business community to follow for grand openings and notifications on town business events.
The town promotes an open dialogue with elected officials and business leaders through its “Coffee with the Mayor” and “Coffee with the Town Administrator” business forums. These events are citywide and open to all businesses from home-based to major employers, to ask questions and get updates from elected officials on current and future projects affecting their business, said Stinchfield.
Mount Pleasant also holds quarterly “Business Socials” for networking activity, and has established an annual Business Appreciation Week to recognize and acknowledge the contributions the business community makes to Mount Pleasant’s local economy.
In Walterboro, the city is friendly to both existing and potential new businesses, said Economic Development Coordinator Hank Amundson.
The city established a Shop Locally Campaign called “Keep your Bucks in the Boro.” The campaign was promoted through billboards around town, cloth re-usable bags with the logo and an information sheet detailing the benefits of local shopping that was distributed at local stores.
The city also supported local businesses with a comprehensive retail study used to help identify missed sales opportunities, in an effort to capture new revenues, Amundson said.
Walterboro also offers a Business/Development Infrastructure Reimbursement Grant Program which allows developers to recoup their infrastructure costs, as well as business counseling and assistance developing and refining business plans, acquiring financing for sustenance and/or growth, and general problem solving, according to Amundson.
Economic development is required for the state and the country to prosper, according to Bluestone. With fewer federal and state dollars available to the local economy, communities will only find prosperity if they develop new sources of revenue. Attracting businesses is the best way of doing that, he said.
The September 15 class of the SC Municipal Elected Officials Institute focuses on the local elected officials’ role in economic development. The class will also cover forms of government.