Wyoming County Business Center, Inc

Wyoming County Business Center, Inc. Annual Report

Accomplishments and Objectives 2014

Economic Development in Wyoming County President’s Message:

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Wyoming County Business Center (WCBC), I proudly present to you the 2014 Annual Report. The WCBC celebrated its eighth year anniversary and has continued to make tremendous contributions in furthering the growth of Wyoming County’s economy.

This year was a very busy year that brought with it a major transition of the organization. On March 4th, 2013 I was hired to become the Executive Director of the IDA. This provided a great opportunity to reduce some operating cost and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. The plan involved removing paid staff (1.2 FTE) and related expenses from the budget of the WCBC and aligning the organization more closely with the Wyoming County Industrial Development Agency. The IDA, under contract, would administer the WCBC at a greatly reduced cost and in the process create a one stop shop for all economic development programs and resources. The IDA ramped up their investment to meet this new administrative responsibility by hiring Jennifer Tyczka as a part-time administrative support person and promoting Robin Marschilok to Director of Operations freeing up my time to develop and find new projects and programs.

The new arrangement has worked out extremely well, there is less confusion about who does what when a business is seeking out assistance. It also allowed the WCBC to reduce its dependency on Wyoming County funding. The 2014 budget request sent to the County in August of this year was reduced by $37,050.

The WCBC will continue to provide a very important role in economic development and will remain in place to carry out activities such as assistance for retail projects (which the IDA is prohibited from doing) micro lending, business attraction marketing, entrepreneurship development (FastTrac New Venture Classes) and real estate redevelopment with environmentally challenged properties such as the former A & A Metal site in Perry.

Thank you to everyone who has played a role in the WCBC and our collective work to improve the economic viability of Wyoming County. I also want to thank the Board of Directors of the WCBC for the privilege of allowing the Wyoming County IDA, on a contractual arrangement continue the vital services of the organization.

Sincerely,

2 James Pierce Mission: The Business Center provides opportunities for business growth by promoting and assisting economic development projects that result in capital investments and job creation and retention in Wyoming County.

Introduction

The Wyoming County Business Center (WCBC), Inc. was established in 2006 by the Wyoming County Board of Supervisors to become the lead economic development agency in Wyoming County. The WCBC is a private, not-for-profit local development corporation that is in its seventh year.

The WCBC is co-located and works with our development partners the Wyoming County Industrial Development Agency (IDA), Wyoming County Planning, Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, Small Business Development Center and the Wyoming County Business Education Council.

Board of Directors 2014

 Mark Merrill, Chairman  Richard Fish Sr., Vice Chairman  Sam Gullo, Secretary  James Brick  Dan Leuer  Jim Fleischman (resigned 2014)

Contact Information: James Pierce, President Wyoming County Business Center 6470 Rt. 20A- Suite 2 Perry, NY 14530 Website: www.wycobusiness.org Telephone: (585) 237-5080 Email: [email protected] Fax: (585) 237-4113

3 WCBC Economic Development Activities

The WCBC will continue to play a vital role in economic development of Wyoming County. The WCBC plays a key role in the assistance of retail projects, development of entrepreneurs, micro lending, marketing for business attraction and real estate redevelopment projects.

FastTrac New Venture

Entrepreneurship Development Program- "Growing Our Own Jobs"

A key component of the Wyoming County's economic development strategy is supporting and assisting with entrepreneurship, new business startups and business expansions. This is a significant source of job growth for Wyoming County. The Kauffman Foundation's FastTrac New Venture program, offered by the WCBC, has proven to be very effective in Wyoming County. The program is designed to develop sound business plans and get new businesses started off on the right foot. Since its inception, the program has resulted in 36 businesses being established in Wyoming County that created over 50 jobs.

The class is offered twice a year, in the spring and fall. The spring of 2014's class resulted in the graduation of 11 entrepreneurs. Currently the fall class consists of 10 participants. The training includes a fast paced and challenging itinerary which spans over a 10 week period. The topics include analyzing the viability of the business idea, assessing the market place, cash flow projections, marketing, learning about the various legal structures for businesses and the development of a business plan.

The classes, which are intentionally kept small in size, are facilitated by two entrepreneurs both trained and certified by the Kauffman Foundation. The Wyoming County Business Center is greatly appreciative of two generous sponsors of the program, Tompkins Bank of Castile and Complete Payroll Processing. FastTrac New Venture will begin its ninth cycle of training on March 25th, 2015.

A testimonial from one of the participants summed up the program this way… “I would highly recommend taking the class to get an understanding on what it takes to start a business and to see if you have what it takes (desire and commitment) to make it happen.”

The following list contains business concepts from the Spring 2014 entrepreneurship class:

Business Concept Public Relations Custom Embroidering Maple Products Greenhouse Dog Grooming Consignment Shop Laundromat Food Retail Mobile Hair Salon "Do it Yourself" Garage Cement Sculptures & Tiles Exotic Vegetables 4 Health Food Store FastTrac New Venture Spring 2014 Graduates

L-R Back Row Mike Fitch, Program Facilitator, Jennifer Young, Barbara Hopkins, Harold McWilliams, Todd Morris, Nicole Buck, Pat Cobb, Ron Westberg, Beckie Knight, Jim Pierce, Program Director L-R Front Row Adam Young, Amanda Burnison, Michele Raines, Elizabeth Barth, Carisa Harding, Johanna Hodge, Jeff Fitch, Program Facilitator

The Fall 2014 training class is in its ninth week. The following list contains the business concepts from the current entrepreneurs:

Business Concept Restaurant/Buffet Agri-tourism Internet Marketing Hoof Trimming Fine Art's Equine Tack Graphic Design/Print Production Alpaca Fiber Mill Landscape/Snow Plowing Fitness Center

5 Micro Loan Program

The Wyoming County Business Center administers a micro loan program utilizing grant dollars provided by the Wyoming County Board of Supervisors that were originally sourced from the NYS Office of Community Renewal. The following business requested funding from the program in 2014:

1. Stangtek Service-The funding provided the business working capital that it needed to hire a sales representative to improve marketing of the Arcade business. One full time job was created.

Listed below is the current portfolio of micro loans that are currently being administered:

1. About Face Day Spa 2. Bear Communications, LLC 3. Canaan's Butcher Block 4. Cappy's Trucking 5. CSI Tax Service 6. Decisions Catering, LLC 7. Healing Hands Massage & Spa, LLC 8. Hellwigs' Son Raised Alpacas 9. Jacked 24/7 LLC 10.Norse Paddle Company 11. Shearing's Hoof Trimming, LLC 12. Silver Trails Outfitter, LLC 13. StangTek Service 14. Swept Away Hair Studio & Day Spa, LLC 15. Twice is Nice Boutique, LLC 16. West Bookkeeping Service 17. Wolcott Bothers Music 18. About Face Day IDA Spa & Salon 19. Country Homes & Interiors 20. NY Stork Exchange

$338,523.6 Total Loan Portfolio 5

Economic Development Marketing Plan

The last time an economic development marketing plan was prepared for Wyoming County was in 1999. Adequate funding to amend or develop a new plan was always a barrier. Funding however to develop a new marketing plan for business attraction was 6 freed up in 2013 from the savings realized by removing staff from the WCBC budget. A Request for Qualifications and Proposals was sent out in late August of 2013. The work to develop the plan was awarded to Dixon Schwabl out of Victor, NY for a cost not to exceed $38, 125 in early October.

Work to date on the plan has included a review of all previous plans that have been prepared for Wyoming County, telephone interviews with key stakeholders, and site tours of manufacturing, agriculture and tourism businesses. The next step is a stakeholder meeting called a “Discovery Session” which is scheduled for December 4, 2013.

Deliverables from the planning process will be completed in late January 2014 and will include:

 Brand Pyramid  Target Audience Profiles  Messaging Strategy  Tagline  Marketing Plan

The economic development marketing plan once completed will be implemented utilizing the resources of the WCBC and IDA.

A & A Metal Site Brownfield Cleanup Project

A & A Metal Fabrication Site

The WCBC has for the past few years assumed the responsibility for environmental investigation and is working towards the redevelopment of a contaminated and abandoned industrial site known as the former A & A Metal Fabricating site in Perry. In 2013 the WCBC worked to advance the project further. Enough environmental investigation was conducted to receive a determination from the DEC that the property is not a significant threat to the environment and public. One small area where some petroleum tanks were once buried was the only serious contamination at the site so the site was listed on the hazardous spill list and became the responsibility of the DEC to do the remediation. 7 The remediation contract was awarded by the DEC in the Spring of 2013 and the work began. A letter dated September 3, 2013 was received from the DEC declaring the completion of the remediation and stating that DEC no longer has an interest in the site.

The next steps for the WCBC, which holds an assignment of the mortgage, will be to get a business prospect interested in the site and try and recapture some of the $170,000 of IDA funds that were used for remedial investigation by selling the property or rights to the assignment of the mortgage. There were two interested parties at one time interested in the site however, because of the length of time it took to get the property to a point where it was safe and ready for reuse, the prospects could not wait and they found other sites/buildings.