CEO Corner

By:
Steve Gilmore
CEO

Under the leadership of Chamber President Ray Phelps the Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce created an Economic Vitality Committee that will be looking at ways to grow our local economy. The committee is made up of representatives from our business community, city, county, and state economic development officials. Leading this committee is Chamber Board Member Bob Bennett, CPA and newly appointed Wilsonville City Councilor Richard Goddard, who actually was a member of the committee prior to his appointment, representing Portland General Electric.

The Committee met recently and determined that the most important place to focus their efforts was on business retention and expansion of existing business, rather than focusing on business recruitment. Business retention activities tend to achieve high returns on investment, because the vast majority of job growth is derived from existing businesses.

The Economic Vitality Committee determined that a business retention and expansion survey should be completed this fall that will set a benchmark to identify business issues, identify growth and employment opportunities, and provide valuable resources to existing companies in Wilsonville to help them achieve success.

The Chamber will be mailing out a survey to every business in Wilsonville asking a variety of questions. If a business identifies issues that are detrimental to their success or provide an expansion opportunity, the Chamber will act immediately and do everything possible to find the necessary resources to help that individual business. Our government partners are ready to assist us in this effort and their expertise will be very helpful.

The survey will also be used to help the Chamber develop a strategic long-term business retention plan that will have a positive economic impact to the South Metro Region for years to come. The Chamber is excited about this new initiative and the opportunity that it provides to grow the economic vitality of our region. Please call me at (503) 682-0411 or email me at steve@wilsonvillechamber.com if you have any questions.