CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A quality workforce in terms of soft skills is the biggest issue facing small businesses in Charleston, according to a survey by the Charleston Area Alliance.
Fifty Charleston businesses were surveyed in a project called “Charleston Business Snapshot” as part of a grant from the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and BB&T. Officials from the alliance went door-to-door for the in-person surveys that took weeks to complete.
Sixteen percent of business owners responded to their biggest challenge as quality workforce while 12% said the loss of population, 12% safety/vagrancy, 9% internet, 7% parking, and 5% tax law changes.
Susie Salisbury, the VP of Community Development for the Charleston Area Alliance said small businesses are the heart of Charleston and they must always look for ways to improve them.
“We don’t have that many manufacturers within our city limits so our B&O tax base is more based on these smaller businesses,” she said.
“We need to have our finger on the pulse of what their concerns are, how could we assist them more, what are the great things that we could enhance?”
Included in the survey were questions comparing 2017 to 2018. For employment, nearly 63% of businesses said it stayed the same, while both increase and decrease received 18.8% of the answer.
Just more than half of the small businesses saw an increase in revenue over the past year at 51% while 30% saw a decrease and 19% stayed the same.
Forty-five percent of surveyed businesses anticipate growth in 2020.
Salisbury said the survey also got opinionated.
“We asked them a question, in your opinion, does your Charleston location enhance, hurt, or have no impact on your business. The good news is most people said it enhanced it,” she said.
The survey showed that 54.5% of respondents said it enhanced business while 27.3% said it hurt and 18.2% said their Charleston location has no impact on business.
Of note, 30% of businesses surveyed have offices outside of Charleston and 40% of business owners surveyed live outside of city limits.
Salisbury said the alliance hopes to continue this kind of survey every few years.