The city’s economic development office and the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce are teaming up to carry out a business retention research survey in the Alberni Valley. The project is one that has been done in some 70 BC communities to-date and the goal is to provide businesses and economic development agencies with baseline information regarding business trends, viability, what may be needed to help businesses, what’s working and what’s not.
This will hopefully lead to action items to address any problem areas. When the data is analyzed, we can then compare our findings with the seventy other BC communities. There are 650 active business licenses in town and the first phase of the project will focus on the 150 that are located in the uptown-Harbour Quay area. It’s expected that we can survey 200 businesses in the next two months.
Incoming chamber executive director, Bill Collette, will be conducting most of the surveys up until the end of February. It’s common knowledge that it makes far more economic sense to work on business retention than try to attract new businesses to a community.
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If you have a favourite business or you know of an outstanding individual in the Valley, it’s time they were nominated for a Community Excellence Award. The nomination forms, background information and categories are easily accessed by visiting our website, avcoc.com. Each April the chamber hosts an awards dinner where we introduce the finalists and announce the year’s award winners. It’s a great opportunity to give great businesses and individuals some recognition for making our community that much better.
Thought for the Week:
“Keep a diary and one day it will keep you.” Mae West