- November 18, 2024
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Palm Coast’s Business Assistance Center has generated a $21.3 million economic impact in its first three years of operation, providing more than 1,400 business counseling sessions since it opened on May 1, 2011.
“The environment we’ve created has allowed economic development in Flagler County to grow and prosper through the economic engine we all know exists in the U.S. economy, and that’s our small businesses,” Palm Coast Business Assistance Center Area Manager Joe Roy said in a presentation at a City Council workshop April 29.
“Clearly what’s happening here is we’re delivering an economic impact, and our businesses are creating an economic impact through the environment that we create, which is enabling them to get help and training and education and someone to talk to,” he said. “And the results speak for themselves.”
The statistics Roy presented were compiled as part of the 2013 Annual State Survey of Florida Small Business Development Center customers. About 25% of the BAC’s customers responded to the survey.
The numbers showed a steady growth in impact, with Palm Coast BAC clients reporting more than $11 million in economic impact during 2013, including 5.49 million in sales, $3.21 million in capital investment and $2.33 million in salaries and wages, according to a city of Palm Coast news release.
The BAC’s clients generated $169 for every tax dollar invested in the BAC in 2012, Roy said, and $172 in economic impact for every dollar invested in 2013.
“The programs and services that are offered that we assist in are very instrumental in helping our small business community,” Roy said. “We measure our success based on use of taxpayer funds and returning those taxpayer dollars back into the community.”
The BAC helps businesses develop initial business plans and strategic plans, walks them through the city’s licensing and permitting process, and instructs them on advertising, he said. The counseling is free for businesses that seek it.
The BAC/Florida SBDC was established as part of Palm Coast’s Prosperity 2021 strategic economic development plan, which focuses on supporting existing businesses and encouraging investment.
“Small businesses make up nearly half of the private-sector economy in the United States, and we know they are critical to the economy of Palm Coast,” Palm Coast Economic Development Coordinator Beau Falgout said. “Our goal is to help businesses grow one job at a time, and judging from the economic return shown in this new survey, the city’s investment in the Palm Coast BAC/Florida SBDC has had a major payoff.”
Roy said the BAC is looking to help develop the kind of entrepreneurs who change society with their products and ideas.
“The next Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg could clearly today be in Flagler Palm Coast High School or Matanzas High School and not even know it,” he said. “Innovation is going to be the lifeblood of the city going forward – how we capture new ideas, how we get entrepreneurs to develop new products, new approaches — I think that’s what’s going to create the prosperity that we’re looking for in the community. And we are going to spend a lot of time trying to understand that.”
