Business Retention Grows Jobs

A key role of the SCVEDC is to attract new companies to the Santa Clarita Valley that bring high-quality jobs. With announcements of the relocation of companies such as Sunkist and the SCVEDC's recent trip to China to attract foreign investment, in might be easy to think that business attraction is the only way to grow jobs.

Thankfully, the SCV already have many businesses already operating her successfully, many in our target industry clusters:

• Aerospace & Defense
• Medical Devices
• Digital Media & Entertainment
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Information Technology

It is of critical importance that we nurture these companies and help them grow. The first and most obvious reason is that when these companies add jobs, they are by definition, new jobs in the SCV! In fact, national data shows that 80% of new jobs in a community come from existing businesses. Since thse companies comprise the workforce and occupy the majority of space, statistically they are going to dominate job growth.

We also know that the majority of jobs in the country are at small businesses. These are businesses that are started by an entrepreneur, and when they start a new company, they almost always do so in their existing community. They rarely relocate to start their brand new company because they leverage their existing relationships and local knowledge to launch their new endeavor.

Think about it: every company started small.

So when a community fosters a positive business environment for its existing companies, it helps set the stage for future entrepreneurs to build new companies. The SCVEDC support our industry clusters and offers business assistance to local companies. Businesses can contact SCVEDC at any time for a confidential interview to identify potential opportunities, whether it be accessing incentives, resolving regulatory conflicts, obtaining financing or others issues as they work to expand. At the SCVEDC, we want local businesses to gain access to every opportunity for which they are eligible.

Doing so grows jobs right here in the Santa Clarita Valley.

A version of this posted appeared in The Signal on June 30, 2014

The Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation (SCVEDC) is a unique private / public partnership representing the united effort of regional industry and government leaders. The SCVEDC utilizes an integrated approach to attracting, retaining and expanding a diversity of businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley, especially those in key industry clusters, by offering competitive business services and other resources.