Sonoma County BEST Successfully Completes '100 in 100', Continues Retention and Expansion Campaign

Sonoma County BEST, the region’s first public-private partnership devoted to business success and job growth in Sonoma County, has officially completed its “100 in 100” strategic business retention and expansion campaign launch, reaching 105 Sonoma County businesses in 100 business days. The initiative, which concluded at the end of July, saw pairs of volunteer business executives and local economic development professionals from the county and cities conducting one-on-one interviews with company owners and executives.

Business retention and expansion has several important goals, foremost being the identification of opportunities for Sonoma County businesses to expand as well as identifying businesses that are vulnerable to relocation outside the region. The program collected business success stories across the county, discovered specifics on how local and state regulations are impacting growth, and gathered input from the region’s businesses for possible business attraction.

“Our embedded base of industry here in Sonoma County is most likely where additional jobs and investment will be created,” said Carolyn Stark, executive director of Sonoma County BEST.“Our major goal with our outreach program is to concentrate initial efforts on creating proactive relationships with our existing business to find ways to help them expand, as well as assist in resolving any issues that might be preventing their growth.”

Stark went on to describe the vital information that was gathered during the launch, “We found several key takeaways across the board that formed a consistent pattern through the companies we reached. Generally, Sonoma County’s business and jobs climate is steadily improving in pace with the national economic climate. Several jurisdictions have stepped up to work more collaboratively with businesses on projects to help them overcome deal breakers, as a result of recognizing the added value these projects bring to the community.

Creating a local climate that will foster job growth and stabilize Sonoma County’s economy will require continued and persistent modifications responsive to our business’s needs.Companies located in Sonoma County value the exceptional quality of life Sonoma offers over other locations and will fight to stay in Sonoma County… the question remains will Sonoma County do the same?

About Sonoma County BEST
Launched in 2011, the Sonoma County Building Economic Success Together (“BEST”) is a public-private partnership operating as a 501(c)3 under the umbrella of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce.Its purpose is to support business success and job growth in Sonoma County with the job growth goal of 2,500 jobs in the next five years.