ECONOMY
their full potential in our safe, beautiful and prosperous city
for all people.”
Ever since the loss of several biotech companies during
the recession of the mid-2000s, the city has concentrated its
economic growth efforts on growing and nurturing new and
existing small businesses in the city.
“Since Port St. Lucie is a rapidly growing metropolitan
marketplace,” Kindred explained, “I had the idea that the city
probably warranted having a full-time consultant rather than
the part-time service we had been offering. So, we came up
with an idea to approach the city about a partnership.
“We are a grant-based program with limited funding, but I
felt we could leverage our limited funding by working with
the city to help its small businesses.” The May agreement
with the city runs for three years and it “ups our game,”
Kindred said.
BETTER CHANCE FOR SUCCESS
While the small business training process was already in
place and that COVID slowed that process down, Kindred
said, others see the pandemic as an accelerant in offering small
business owners more help.
Blackburn recalled that “we started this at the beginning of
COVID. Many of our small businesses were severely impacted.
But it’s been a very uneven recession; some businesses
were and are really hurting, others are enjoying unprecedented
sales.”
“I CAN’T COMPARE YEAR OVER YEAR
BECAUSE I’M A NEW OWNER, BUT I
THINK WE’RE GOING IN THE RIGHT
DIRECTION. THE ASSISTANCE WE
RECEIVED FROM THE SBDC AND THE
SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
WAS INVALUABLE.”
Blackburn emphasized the tremendous impact of small
businesses in the city.
“In 2016-2017, Port St. Lucie had more new businesses
formed than anywhere else in the U.S.,” he said.
Yet many of them encounter hurdles to prosperity, even in
good economic conditions.
“Many begin with an owner’s passion,” Blackburn noted,
“yet they need some sort of business plan. The expansion
of the SBDC services in the city recognizes we have a growing
small-business base in a growing community. They are
helping us offer a better chance of success, especially in the
time of COVID. The federal Paycheck Protection Program
helped, but having someone available to hold their hands has
really made the difference.
“We’re at more than 200,000 now,” Blackburn continued.
“I’m not sure of the exact number of small businesses in the
city, but it’s certainly in the thousands. So, we need to help
them succeed. We had been talking to Tom Kindred about >>
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