Small Business Development -- an Alternative to Industrial Development

Part of my job is to help develop, build, and expand Elizabethton’s economy, jobs, and tax base. One small thing I do is visit the businesses and industries who employ the most people and, often, we are asked to report employers with the highest number of employees to credit agencies and auditors to best determine the city’s economic status. Many times Snap-On, Sycamore Shoals Hospital, and Walmart make the top of the list, but what, really, are the other areas that employ a lot of people?

The United States Census Bureau help local governments by recording and tracking this type of business data for cities and counties. Based on data for Carter County from 2014, there were approximately 702 businesses and industries in the entire county. Over 77% of those businesses and industries employed less than 10 people and more than 95% employed less than 50 people! Truly, the industry that employs the most people in our community is small businesses! In the last 5 years, the largest growing number of businesses have been those which employ between 10-20 people.

Because of the lack of readily available, flat land, the cost of industrial development is extremely high here in Carter County. As I’ve mentioned before, industrial development and recruitment is not impossible, but when our citizens demand businesses that employ 100, 200, 300 people they must realize that the likelihood of finding an appropriate site is small and the cost of developing that site will result in higher taxes for existing property owners not just new businesses.

Let me pose an alternative to you, that we focus on small-business development. Sure, we must retain our existing industries and work to recruit new ones where it is feasible, but with the numbers I mentioned earlier all most all of our businesses in Carter County are small businesses and they provide many of the jobs in our community today.  Additionally, as small businesses grow, they tend to be extremely loyal to their originating community and purchase products for their businesses from other local businesses.

Small business development and tourism development go hand-in-hand. Many of the businesses that benefit from an increase in tourism are small businesses that have found a unique niche that becomes attractive to tourists. Small business development, just like tourism development, will require some investment on the part of our local governments, but it will likely be a far less expense than the development of new industrial properties. The impact of small businesses development will take longer to impact our community, but in the long run it can create a more stable, sustainable economy that will not as easily be impacted by national economic trends.

Do you think small business development is a good way forward? What else should we as a community and as a local government be doing to encourage small business development? Let’s talk about it!