Survey Results and an Update on the Transition Team

You may have seen the recent article in the Savannah Morning News about the Transition Team. It was a “general update”, with several good quotes from Brynn and Zelda about how things are progressing.  (Check it out online at savannahnow.com)

The Transition Team has been working to understand the value of TCCa to the community and those efforts have included the recent survey that you all so generously lent your time and feedback to, the results of which are summarized below.  The Team has spent some time researching other similar initiatives throughout the country as well as the other organizations and agencies in the area with complementary missions and values.  Next, the Team will utilize this info information in a retreat in early April to map out vision, mission and strategy for the next phase of the organization.

Survey Results

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in our survey. The responses were passionate and overwhelmingly positive with many of you taking the time to leave comments showing support for TCCa and providing ideas for the team.

Within a few days we had almost 800 responses (400 within a few hours) out of 8000 emails sent out. And, since 1600 of you actually opened the email we sent, that means we got a 50% response rate with those of you who opened the email. Over 150 of the responses came with extra comments.

To us this clearly showed how important TCCa is, how passionately you all feel about the subject and how strong our community continues to be.

Interestingly we had a handful of responses with comments from people living in other parts of the country and internationally who said that the TCCa was a resource for them and that relocating to Savannah was a longterm goal because of it.

To top this off, the survey triggered 2 direct inquiries from companies hoping to move to Savannah within the year. Both of these companies have been monitoring the activity within our community via the website and expressed their appreciation for the work that TCCa hs been doing.

Now to the meat of the responses….

The largest response came from companies with 1-3 employees (42%), with the second largest group surprisingly being companies of 50+ people (27%).  Coming in a not-too-distant third, were those businesses with 4-10 employees (16%).

Similarly, the biggest chunk of responses came from companies generating between 0 – $100,000 in annual revenue (32%), with the second largest group being $5 million or more in annual revenue.  A close third was companies generating between $201,000 and $500,000.

Priorities ranked in order of importance for Savannah:

1. Retain existing talent and businesses in Savannah
2. Grow existing businesses in Savannah
3. Attract new talent and new businesses to Savannah
4. Create new businesses in Savannah

Programming priorities ranked in order of importance for TCCa:

1. Proactively branding Savannah from the perspective of “doing business”
2. Funding/Financing expertise and assistance with getting it
3. Monetary and Tax Incentives
4. Professional development and lecture/knoweldge-sharing events
5. Centralized website to find jobs and resumes, news and events, business directory listings, etc
6. Networking events & opportunities
6a. Small business advocacy & lobbying
7. One-on-one business counseling, connection and advice
8a. Centralized website to promote your business/organization’s jobs, news and events, and community activities
8b. Below-market office space or entrepreneurial center
9. Centralized website that allows you or your organization to discuss relevant local topics
10. Annual award/recognition event that highlights local business and innovation

The results were fairly consistent through all of the groups with the exception of 1-3 person companies where the number 1 concern was “Funding/Financing expertise and assistance with getting it”.

It should also be noted that most of the above priorities listed above were rated as “important” or “critically important.”  The rankings reflect relative positions within that scope.

Respondent details:

96% indicated that the local government and/or private organizations should invest in growing/helping existing businesses in Savannah, and/or attracting new businesses to Savannah.

63% are currently involved in professional, business or civic organizations that meet regularly in Savannah.

76% of were familiar with TCCa’s mission, and could specifically articulate some or all of it.

80% thought TCCa (or an organization like it) is very important or critically important to increasing the quality of life and opportunity for the citizens of Savannah.

Zip codes represented:

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Again we appreciate all the enthusiastic response we’ve received thus far, both through the survey and in person. We’ll do our best to keep you posted as we go along. More soon!