Austin's Small Business Division wants to hear from local business owners.
Austin's Small Business Division wants to hear from local business owners.
We want to hear from all kinds of small business owners! Mom and Pops, Freelancers, Musicians, Makers, Creatives, Gig Workers, Owners, Entrepreneurs - you're the voices of this local business community. Who better to provide insight into what is needed right now?
We are hosting 5 virtual discussion groups to gather input from local business owners and help the City determine what types of classes, events and resources are most valuable to our local business community. Small business owners from any industry are invited to participate, providing ideas, insight and experience to help shape the way forward for the City's Small Business Division. Each event will also feature an industry-specific segment toward the end for key groups that have been impacted by the pandemic. Dates and times are listed below. Registration links will be live on Friday, August 13th.
Did you make the "Covid Pivot" successfully? Have you unlocked secrets of success that others might benefit from? Would you like to tell us more about how your business weathered the global pandemic and came out stronger on the other side? Take the survey and at the end, we'll give you some space to tell us a little bit about your success. You'll make our day.
Are you an influencer, educator or just a well-rounded human with an interest in getting more small businesses to participate in this study? Follow us on social media and please share a link to this site with anyone you know who is running their own business.
A session was held Sept 1st and covered general small business needs but also featured some specific topics relevant to Travel & Tourism.
A session was held Sept 9th and covered general small business needs and also featured some specific topics relevant to "Green" or Eco-friendly Businesses
A session was held Sept 14th and covered general small business needs and also featured specific topics relevant to Musicians and the Music Industry.
A session was held Sept 24 and covered general small business needs and featured specific topics related to the Arts, Artist and Creatives.
A session was held Sept 28 that covered general small business needs as well as topics related specifically to Restaurants and Food Services.
Need more answers? Drop us a line below and we'll reply ASAP.
The City of Austin Small Business Program is conducting a review or assessment of all the services, classes and workshop they provide for the local business community. This time around, we also want to ask about some of the ways you're managing your business in light of the pandemic. The survey takes about 5 minutes to complete and gives you a chance to share your own ideas and opinions about how to build a stronger small business program for all of us.
If you run a small business of any kind in the Austin area and/or you want to help make sure our local business community continues to thrive and grow, then you should take the survey and maybe attend one of our 5 scheduled lunch & discuss events. So much of our success as a city relies on the strength and resilience of our local business community - these programs help us all to thrive and grow.
Sure. Most of us think of a small business as having a storefront or maybe just a mom and pop shop. Small business is much more than that - though those two examples are valid. Small businesses are defined by the Federal government as having between zero and 100 employees. So what most of us might call a medium or even large business can still be considered a small business. More importantly, really small - micro businesses - also count. So solopreneurs, gig workers driving deliveries for extra income, freelancers, independent contractors with or without a fancy business name or bank account. Artists, musicians, designers, creatives, makers. Even nonprofit organizations count. Nonprofit organizations are business entities too, they just don't get to take the profits home at the end of the day.
Yes and No. We care about ALL types of small business for this study, so we don't care if you are a retailer, home-based or side-gig-hustle-machine, we want to hear from you. However, we will be digging a little deeper on a few specific topics to make sure we're meeting the need in our community. Those groups include:
No, not really. We do a needs assessment like this every few years. But this time around, we're only just emerging from the shutdown so it makes sense to tack on a few questions and discussion points around how we all go through this challenging time. So - no, it's isn't all about covid. But we will be addressing issues specific to the past two years in this study.
Your input carries important insights and we would like to hear from you. Do you plan to re-open, start something new or have you made a big transition that took you in a new direction? We want to learn how you got through this difficult time and we are looking for ways to be ready to help struggling businesses in the future, should another unexpected situation come into play. Please take a few minutes to take the survey and share your thoughts.
First of all, that's awesome. Your input is as important as anyone else's for this study. In fact, we're looking for success stories to share because it's been a rough couple of years and we could all use a little good news right now. If your business picked up during the shutdown, take a minute to share your success story at the end of the survey. You might share a nugget of greatness that helps other businesses grow and thrive.
This website is hosted and managed by a collective of local business leaders. The City of Austin has partnered with Distance Learning Media to manage the 2021 Small Business Needs Assessment Study. DLM helped with the last study like this in 2017 as well.
We created HelpAustinThrive.com to make finding the survey easy but also to say hey - we are a community - let's do something amazing, together. We'll have more collaboration opportunities soon. Want to keep in touch? Sign up for updates below.
Do you have burning questions? Want to make contact with us without taking the survey or just want to say hi and #goteam? Use the simple form below to drop us a line. We'll read it AND we'll even write back. Because we're humans, like you, and we like to communicate.
Sign Up to get reminders and updates from us about the Small Business Needs Assessment.
There was a lot of info on the page and you wanted to know more about what this whole thing was about before you clicked to take a City of Austin's Small Business Survey, right? Makes a lot of sense. We added another link way down here so you don't even have to scroll back up. Cheers!
The City of Austin Small Business Needs Assessment
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