Community Futures: Business Retention Program

During the month of June 2000 Community Futures representatives collected over 200 completed Business Retention Program Surveys from participating businesses in the Greater Trail area. Although this survey is now dated, the information is still relevant today. The following is a brief summary of key results from the 87question survey. Please note the sum of percentages may not be 100% as many questions have multiple answers.

Although Mining / Smelting accounts for less than 1% of the business make-up in the Greater Trail area, it is important to note it has the highest employment of all business sectors. Figure 1 charts the number of employees by business type.

Years in business in this Regional District

4% Under 1
17% 1 -3
12% 3.1 - 5
18% 5.1 - 10
27% 10.1 - 25
17% 25.1 - 50
5% Over 50

Business Facilities

62% of business lease their premises
21% of the respondents find their facilities too small
4% find them too large
75% find them just right

In the next 3 years:

64 businesses plan on expanding
3 businesses plan on downsizing
16 businesses plan on relocating
126 business plan to stay the same

The major problems anticipated with resizing are:

38% Financing
18% Timing
16% Zoning / Regulations
16% Labour

If relocating:

23 businesses would stay in the Kootenay-Boundary District
17 businesses would relocate to the elsewhere within BC
10 businesses would relocate elsewhere within Canada
10 businesses would relocate to the Central Kootenay District

Of 183 responses:

61% think the region is an okay place to do business
19% think the region is a poor place to do business
17% think the region is a great place to do business
3% think the region is a terrible place to do business

Business Concerns

Businesses were asked to rank how important certain factors were to their success. The most important factors are as follows:

71% Quality of available labour
63% Community safety / low crime rate
58% Labour costs
56% Availability of public parking
54% Availability of expedient delivery to and from major centres
53% Lease costs

Of 146 responses, the following created difficulties for businesses

38% Property taxes
32% Income taxes
16% City bylaws
8% Zoning regulations
5% Licensing procedures

Sales & Marketing

47% of businesses stated revenues had increased in the past 3 years and 67% expect revenues to increase in the next 3 years. 28% said revenues had decreased since 1997. Businesses use the following methods of marketing and promotion:

75% Word of mouth and networking
65% Newspapers
49% Radio
37% Flyers and brochures
29% Magazines and other publications
27% Trade shows and other business events
26% Internet
18% Television
14% Billboards

89% of businesses have not researched marketing their product or service globally and 90% feel they do not require more information on global marketing. 71% utilize online Internet resources and 33% feel the availability of Internet and communications is very important to the success of their business.

Only 42% of businesses surveyed feel they need to improve their marketing efforts and 34% feel additional training in sales skills are required. 38% ranked their industries local growth potential to be good, 8% excellent, 31% fair and 17% poor.