Business Assistance & Outreach

This ranges from assisting businesses with identifying financing, possible locations, expansion, needed permits, business training and resources, workforce development, and business promotion. This can be as simple as answering a few questions to identifying and working directly with individual businesses to help them get the resources they need.

We work directly with businesses and local planning and development offices. We can help coordinate businesses, and property owners or developers, with the planning approval and building permit process. Often we play a coordinator role, or we direct our clients to the best planning/development staff to assist them. We tailor this service as the needs vary.

As a major part of our efforts has been to publicize key information about available loans, grants, and tax credits for our local businesses. In the past year this focus has been on federal COVID-19 business financial resources, such as the PPP Loan Program, to Small Business Administration loans, State business grants, San Benito County business grants, and the Grow San Benito Microloan Program.

Outreach also includes talking to local businesses about these and other resources. In conjunction with the County, EDC coordinated and moderated 11 business sector webinars to discuss impacts and best practices in response to COVID-19.  The EDC puts out press releases that are distributed to our other business organization partners, the press, and our local government partners that highlight business resources.

The EDC is actively working with two Committees, Permitting and Airport.  Our Permitting (we actually have two committees one with Hollister, and one with the County) Committee is cooperating and working with City and County staff to identify better methods and tools to improve the permitting process experience for applicants as well as our government partners. Second, we can walk our clients through the permitting process, if they are not familiar with planning and development process and regulations, and help them become so.

The Airport Committee is comprised of business owners, EDC representatives, and the Airport Manager to identify and implement projects and policies to enhance and improve the Airport as a significant economic development attractor for San Benito County.

This group consists of representatives of each of the business organizations consisting of the Chamber of Commerce, Business Council, San Juan Committee, Hollister Downtown Association, and EDC.  We organize and coordinate these meetings which typically include a guest speaker on a topic with a direct impact on economic development.