We Are Committed to Your Success

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.

Tactical Goals 2021

What is the EDC doing this year?

Annually the EDC has a December Retreat to review and discuss what the Board wants to focus on for the following year. Based on the discussion and direction from the Board, EDC will also work on the following 2021 Tactical Goals.

Our Tactical Goals for 2021 are:

Goal #1

Utilize the Hollister Market Analysis as a basis for creating a formal marketing plan.

Goal #2

Work with County Workforce Development Board to understand available workforce development resources and programs, and to increase awareness of these resources in our business community.

Goal #3

Marketing to attract both businesses, and by working with the EDP to help coordinate tourism efforts, and tourists.

Goal #4

Website Expansion and Improvement

Goal #5

Formal Plan for the Airport Area – what promotions and businesses are we targeting for this area.

Looking at 2021 and into 2022, these efforts will define our value proposition for marketing San Benito County to Silicon Valley and the Central Coast.

As we work on all of these objectives, the EDC will utilize metrics to measure our value proposition.