EDC business survey now live

What does your business need? 

The Hill City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) recently launched a digital survey for business owners and managers to discover what businesses need or are concerned about. 

“In general, the EDC’s whole mission is to support the local businesses. So our idea is, why not ask the local businesses what they need instead of just guessing?” said EDC vice president Shonna McBride. “Basically, what we’re looking for is to just get input from the local business community, local business owners of what would be helpful for them as far as things that the EDC can offer.”

This could include things like help with funding, access to resources and experts, grants, training classes, housing for employees and more. 

The survey officially went live a few weeks ago and was distributed through the Hill City Area Chamber of Commerce newsletter, the EDC members, the EDC Facebook page and the Downtown Merchant Group email list. A few responses were received, but McBride said the EDC would love to hear from more people. 

“The more answers we get, the better off we are,” said McBride. 

To start, the survey asks for the business’ name. This space can be left blank if the owner prefers to remain anonymous. From here, owners are asked what industry their business is in, such as retail, hospitality/lodging, food and beverage, tourism, construction/trades or something else. Owners are also asked how long they have been in business and how many employees they have. 

“One of the things we’re curious about is, are you open seasonally or year-round? And then, if you’re only open seasonally, what’s the reason for that? Is it lack of employees, profitability, just a personal preference or maybe another reason which they can fill in,” said McBride. 

Additionally, business owners are asked to rank their concerns regarding the seasonality of tourism/lack of business year-round, staffing/labor shortages, workforce housing, city regulations, need for a different location/lack of space and lack of parking. 

The majority of questions are open-ended with room for additional comments. 

Another thing the survey asks is what are the primary reasons your customers visit Hill City? McBride said the EDC is “kind of wondering what brings people to Hill City. Is it a restaurant? Is it an attraction? Is it an outdoor activity? Is it an event?” 

All and all, McBride said the survey should only take a few minutes to fill out. 

“We have a couple other open-ended questions like what initiatives or programs would you like the EDC to prioritize and do you have any additional feedback? We really just want to get a really good feel from the businesses. 

“How can we help? That is exactly what the EDC is meant to do is support economic development in the city. So how can we be of service to you is what this whole survey is about,” said McBride. 

If requested, McBride said the EDC could print out the survey as well. 

“We can print them and get them to somebody or leave them somewhere if there is a need for that,” said McBride. “We just would really love participation from everybody to gather the results. Then we’re going to use that to form our goals and priority items that we’re going to focus on for the next year.” 

At this time, McBride expects the survey to remain open for at least another month so the EDC can get as many responses as possible. 

The hope is that the EDC can use the results to tailor its objectives, plans and goals for the next year and going forward. 

“It’s just a direct line of communication, and I think communication is so key in so many things. We want to hear from them, and it opens the door for communication from them to us,” said McBride. “We want businesses to feel not only that the EDC is benefiting them, but also like if you’re a member of us, you’re seeing that benefit. We’re hearing you, we understand what you need and we’re working on that.”

The survey can be found at lp.constantcontact

pages.com/sv/MWK2dX0. 

For more information about the EDC or the survey, people can go to hillci

tyedc.com. Any questions can be submitted through the contact form on the website.

“The more responses we get, the better we can tailor what we’re doing,” said McBride.