District of 100 Mile House Walks the Extra Mile to Hear From Local Businesses

On May 1, businesses in 100 Mile House will be surveyed for the 3rd time in three years to find out how business is going in the District of 100 Mile House.

The District of 100 Mile House, Community Futures Cariboo-Chilcotin, South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce and the Province of BC are teaming up to conduct a survey blitz of local businesses as the 3rd Annual Business Walks gets underway. Business Walks are an opportunity for communities to learn directly from businesses about the needs and advantages of doing business in the community, and information collected is used to help target local and regional business supports over the year to come. This is the 3rd Annual Business Walks hosted by the partnering organizations, and volunteers are eager to hit the streets to hear from businesses.

The last Business Walks in 100 Mile House was held in November of 2017, with 20 volunteers visiting 72 businesses. At that time the top needs identified by businesses were labour, financial supports, and growing their customer base. Additionally, tourism marketing, business marketing, and increased financial assistance were all identified as areas that could be supported by government to help support local businesses.

This year the District hopes to have even more volunteers, which will allow for more businesses to be surveyed. An estimated 240 businesses will be interviewed during this year’s ‘volunteer blitz’. The business surveys will take place in the downtown and industrial areas between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1. Businesses that are not visited or are outside the geographic scope for the Business Walks are encouraged to contact the Municipal Office or Chamber of Commerce to request a follow-up survey to be conducted May 7 and 8.

“We know that even with all our volunteers and best efforts there will be businesses that we will not be able to survey on May 1 – businesses that require appointments to be booked like lawyers, hairdressers, and accountants, or businesses that reside in more geographically spread-out areas, like our light-industrial businesses,” reports District of 100 Mile House Economic Development Officer Joanne Doddridge.

“We want to hear from all our businesses, so we are hoping they will call to book an appointment for us to conduct the survey, or will be willing to spend a few minutes to answer our 6 questions by phone. At the end of the day, Business Walks is about developing relationships to our local businesses, and that means all businesses that operate in the District.”

Previous Business Walks in the District of 100 Mile House has sparked the municipality into taking on a variety of business-friendly programs including the Business Façade Incentive Program, Explorecariboo.com, the Business Supply Chain Connector, and the Love 100 Mile House buy-local program. Businesses interested in learning more about these advertising and infrastructure programs, or to book a Business Walks survey outside of the May 1 date can contact Joanne Doddridge at the District of 100 Mile House 250-395-2434.