Chamber of commerce conducts ‘2020 Business Walk’
This year’s survey contained four questions, starting with the current state of business. Over 58-percent said that they were doing great or good. Image of diners supporting local restaurants and eating outdoors in Downtown City Park.
58-percent of local businesses said they were doing great or good
–The Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce recently conducted the 2020 Business Walk, reaching out to almost 500 businesses via in-person visits, phone calls, and emails. This year’s theme was: Rebrand. Reboot. Reinvent, and was adopted to highlight the chamber’s focus of business retention and workforce development, despite a currently changing business climate. The chamber was able to garner valuable feedback which will be used to establish advocacy and focus efforts, as well as tools, programs and resources that will continue to help businesses thrive.
The Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce hosted its first-ever Business Walk in 2018 as an economic development initiative. In an effort to gauge the needs of the community and help determine upcoming programs and focus, a team of volunteers armed with clipboards and surveys made in-person visits to over 400 businesses in just one hour. They repeated the task in 2019 and reached out to nearly 500 companies, comparing the data and trends from the prior year.
This year’s survey contained four questions, starting with the current state of business. Over 58-percent said that they were doing great or good. This is down from 69-percent in 2019, but not far off from the 62-percent in 2018. In the midst of a global pandemic, that level of positivity among businesses is a testament to the resilience of Paso Robles.
The next question asked about the resources needed to improve their business. Over the past three years the same top answer has been given: Attracting and retaining qualified talent. Respondents also indicated that promoting their business, opportunities for networking, and advertising and marking assistance were among their top priorities.
The chamber was interested in learning what the community would like the chamber to focus on in 2021. 51-percent would like to see the chamber continue with its efforts to advocate for policies that support businesses. Marketing our region and engaging in business attraction were also important to those surveyed.
The final question asked if they had utilized www.PasoStrong.com, the website created by the chamber for COVID related information and resources. Nearly 40-percent had benefited from the site.
A complete set of results for 2020, as well as the previous two years, can be found on the chamber’s website: www.pasorobleschamber.com.
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