- March 14, 2025
The key to Flagler County’s future success lies in a community-focused plan, said Dr. Dale Brill, president of the Florida Chamber Association at a luncheon hosted by the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce and Flagler County’s Economic Opportunity Advisory Council.
“We can’t start looking at what solutions look like as a community unless we understand where we’re at today,” Brill said.
In line with that thinking, Brill and the Florida Chamber of Commerce have spent more than $1 million in data-driven research to produce a website, www.thefloridascorecard.com, which evaluates the economic state of the state as a whole, as well as its constituent counties.
For example, the website reports that 282 businesses started in the state of Florida during a one-year period based on data from 2010 — the last year for which data was available. However, 345 businesses closed during that same period.
Knowing figures like these is important, Brill said, because small businesses are important to the future of the county. He said he sees small, community businesses as important agents in Florida’s economic recovery.
“Florida as a state is almost always at the top for small business creation,” Brill said. “Entrepreneurialism is in our DNA.”
Data gleaned from the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s research project spurred the development of a strategic plan for the state's economy, known as the Six Pillars of Florida’s Future Economy.
The plan divides the economy into six spheres, and it is meant to provide a framework for the economic development at the city, county, and state levels.
The pillars identified by the plan are talent supply and education, innovation and economic development, infrastructure and growth leadership, business climate and competitiveness, civic and governance systems, and quality of life and quality of places.
Examining communities on these levels allows for strategic planning that will successfully diversify Florida’s economy, Brill said, which is key to Flagler County’s future.
“We got complacent when we were doing so well as a state before the Great Recession,” Brill said. “We never had to take diversifying the economy seriously.”
But to hope that the state of Florida will be able to remain one that thrives on its tourism and land development industries to carry its economy is too naïve to become a practical solution, Brill said.
“The Florida you’ve known from 20 years ago, from 10 years ago, or even from five years ago is gone,” he said. “If you wait around for things to return to how they will, you’ll be waiting for a very long time.”
The Six Pillars instead plans for a more holistic view of the economy, which hopes to catalyze development of the economy.
“Despite the difficulties, there is a general feeling of lifting in the state,” Brill said. “The opportunity here is to learn about what’s happened to be able to look toward the future.”
