If you’re a local business owner, you can expect to be hearing from the Turlock Chamber of Commerce in the coming weeks or months.
In a bid to better serve the city’s entrepreneurs, the chamber is spearheading an effort to create an all-encompassing database of local businesses in Turlock.
Through Stanislaus State’s interning program, Chamber of Commerce executive director Allie Jeffery is utilizing the skills of CSUS student Karla Esparza, a political science major — with an eye toward studying law — who is on pace to earn her degree in the spring of 2026.
“I’m conducting a research poll of the businesses in the Turlock area,” said Esparza, a 2022 graduate of Ceres High School. “There’s a lot of information that we don’t have. My job is to collect that data and fill the gap. Right now, the chamber doesn’t even have simple information, such as phone numbers, emails, or where businesses are located.”
After that basic information is collected, Esparza can drill deeper and get more specific info, like the number of employees, what type of benefits are offered, or whether the business is owned by a veteran, a minority, a man or woman, and other key information.
“This will help us provide better resources,” said Jeffery. “Because, currently, if we want to offer an opportunity on how to apply for a grant for women-owned businesses, we don’t even know what businesses to contact to tell them that grant opportunity is available.”
According to Jeffery, there are more than 4,000 businesses operating in Turlock, but the information that’s gathered when applying for a business license isn’t always information that will be beneficial to those businesses in the future.
“We started talking to the city of Turlock and to the county to say, ‘Hey, how do we pull together a better list?’” said Jeffery. “And there just wasn’t an existing way to get a great list.”
Enter Esparza, who was searching for an intern project at the same time Jeffery was inquiring about business data.
“We’re not looking for 4,000 people to join the chamber, we’re looking for 4,000 people who are able to talk about the data,” said Jeffery. “We’re going to be making infographics and summary reports that are shared with the community. And Karla’s got that great poli sci background, which allows her to take that information and speak to the trends in our city.”
Esparza is enjoying her time conducting this research.
“The first couple of calls, people were wary, even if they knew what it was about,” said Esparza, whose family owns and operates a welding operation, giving her a background in small business. “So, I had to adjust a couple of questions. It was a learning process, and I’m really enjoying the learning process of narrowing down questions, and what works and what doesn’t.”
And when the school year starts, will Esparza be able to continue her work?
“I plan on being here as long as the chamber allows me to,” Esparza said. “We have a timeline out to the end of the fall semester, but I will be here as long as I’m needed.”
For more information about the survey, call 209-632-2221 (ext. 102) or email info@turlockchamber.com.
