A survey by the Economic Development Corporation of North Simcoe (EDCNS) shows businesses are on their way to recovery.
“A lot of the businesses were still reopening,” said Sharon Vegh, executive director of EDCNS. “Some, but not all, have lost staff, but many expect to recover the staff in the coming months. It's not looking as dismal as we thought.”
A couple months ago, she said, the non-profit launched its recovery kits campaign through which the EDCNS provided help for local businesses to reopen.
“We started out by giving 50 kits and gave out up to 150,” Vegh said. “We're still hearing from businesses. A lot of other municipalities replicated the program as well.”
She said the survey results also showed that half of the businesses that filled out the questionnaire applied for available federal and provincial funding programs.
“A lot of them are doing curbside pick up and deliveries,” Vegh added, adding she could not recall any concerns around a second wave or a second lockdown.
While she could not confirm how many respondents had filled out the survey, she said it had been sent out to at least 2,000 businesses in the area.
In addition to the survey, Vegh said, the EDCNS will collaborate with the county to hold focus groups in the next couple months to gather qualitative data on customer experience.
The study will aim to gather information from four key business sectors: manufacturing, tourism, agriculture, and entrepreneurship (technology, innovation, and scalability), she said.
“The focus groups will be held in the four quadrants of the county,” Vegh said. “Each focus group will have up to eight business stakeholder participants. The groups will occur between Sept. 14 to Oct. 7.”
The information will also help EDCNS develop a strategic plan to allow for the development of programs, promotions and/or services that meet the local business community’s needs, she said.
“That will determine how we re-allocate our budget for 2021,” Vegh said.
She added that the strategic plan will be presented to the North Simcoe municipal councils later this year.
As well, Vegh said, the focus group data will feed into Simcoe County’s Economic Development Office, which is working on developing a Phase 1 COVID-19 Recovery Plan for the region.
She said, results of the focus group activity, Recovery Phase I, will be distributed to the participants and will also be published online.
