NEWS RELEASE
Business Walk 2021: Taking the Pulse of Ladysmith’s Business Community
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ladysmith, Dec 01, 2021 – Working in partnership with Island Coastal Economic Trust, the Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce organized Ladysmith’s second Business Walk in October, 2021.
A “Business Walk” is a day dedicated to learning more about local businesses through face-to-face interviews. During Business Walk 2021, Millie Stirling, the Ladysmith Chamber’s Economic Recovery Coordinator, went door-to-door surveying 114 businesses with the goal of gathering knowledge to help the business community and strengthen relationships.
Through this process, several opportunities for helping businesses to thrive were identified. Survey respondents highlighted the need for help in finding employees and the need to retain their shop local customer base post holidays and COVID as key priorities. They also pointed to the need to examine increased parking opportunities, and cited COVID19 Government Regulations as the biggest challenge affecting growth.
When asked about the current state of their business, 53% of respondents indicated that their business was good/increasing, another 23% responded fair/steady and 5% of respondents indicated that their business was slow/poor. 70% of businesses surveyed plan to grow/expand in the next 5 years. It is important to note that we were unable to connect with enough restaurants for their feedback to impact the results of the survey.
With respect to the direct questions about the effects of the COVID19 Pandemic, 32% of the businesses surveyed sought and obtained pandemic relief. When asked what the specific impacts of COVID19 on their business, 27% reported an increased demand for products/services, 24% decreased hours of operation and 18% loss of suppliers/delay in supplies.
On a very positive note, when asked what our local entrepreneurs like about operating their business in Ladysmith, 53% chose location and 40% chose clientele. It comes as no surprise that everyone loves Ladysmith.
As The Chamber of Commerce and our Economic Recovery Coordinator consider how to move forward with the study findings, we were pleased to partner with WorkBC and offered a free webinar “Recruiting in a Tight Labor Market” on Thursday, November 18, 2021. Our next workshop will be in January, 2022 and we are also planning a job fair in partnership with WorkBC in the spring. Stay tuned…
The Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce, established in 1930, is a voluntary organization of business and professional men and women working together for the purpose of promoting the civic, commercial, and industrial progress of their community.
For further details, please contact:
Millie Stirling
Economic Recovery Coordinator
Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce
T: (250) 245-2112
F: (250) 245-2124
E: millie@ladysmithcofc.com