The Stanislaus Business Alliance conducted 198 surveys in 2014 and this year plans to administer 300.
More surveys means more reliable statistic information on the business community said Alliance CEO David White who presented upon the Alliance’s 2014 Synchronistic Survey, one that gathers the opinions of base employers in Turlock, at the Chamber of Commerce’s annual membership breakfast last week. Base employers include any company that brings new dollars into the economy thus creating new economic opportunity.
White noted that this survey allows the Alliance to build a relationship of trust with a company, understand their issues, discover industry trends, and understand their direction, value, and growth potential. Companies ranked the City in several categories like utilities, public safety, public services, education, employment, and more. Twenty-nine of the companies surveyed qualified as high value and high growth.
“By the way, we have the scores for the entire county and Turlock by and large exceeded the county in almost every score,” said White.
The Alliance’s interest in increasing the number of surveys they administer stems from an interest in further understanding the climate of the local business community. The Alliance is a private-public workforce development organization dedicated to assisting businesses with hiring and individuals in pursuit of jobs. Within the Alliance are several key components, including: Corporate Relocation, Business Assistance, Small Business Development Center, Business Resource Center, Enterprise Zone Assistance, Education Foundation, and the Alliance Worknet.
“The surveys are important because otherwise we don’t really understand what is affecting the business community unless we have some kind of barometer that helps us understand what’s going on,” said White.
The Alliance is currently conducting a survey to feel out the economic outlook of the region by asking locals broad questions as well as those unique to their business, such as: In 2015, how do you expect the workforce to change? How do you expect your sales to change in 2015 compared to last year? What are the main factor(s) restricting your profitability and growth?
“This one is a little bit different in that it is more subjective because it is based on the people who happen to respond, but it does give us somewhat of a sense of what is going on in the business community and what people are sensing as far as economic opportunity going forward such as what appear to be major issues,” said White.
Those interested in taking the 2015 Stanislaus Business Alliance Economic Outlook Survey can do so by accessing https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5XZPP3G.
