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Sausalito Chamber Waves: Committee releases startup guide
By Cheryl Popp
Sausalito’s Business Advisory Committee recently published a handsome new brochure called the “Sausalito Business Start-Up Guide.” An informational resource for anyone interested in opening a business in Sausalito, it offers step-by-step guidelines for navigating City Hall: permitting, licenses, ordinances, zoning, you name it. The goal of the guide is to help streamline and expedite the opening or construction of a new business.
The document is also a marketing piece that will be part of a toolkit to proactively promote Sausalito to potential businesses and encourage economic development in the city. If Sausalito merchants and residents want to support independent retailers — the eclectic business-and-boutique mix we have here now — versus big-box stores and chains, we need to attract these businesses and make it easy for them to open and prosper.
After battling the bureaucracy and delaying their startup, some small businesses have exhausted their resources and can barely afford to open. The longer it takes a business to be operational, the more the city loses as well on sales tax revenues. Unfortunately, Sausalito is not always perceived as “business friendly.” We have a lot to offer businesses (waterfront, tourist traffic, location), but we often make it difficult for a business to get started. (It took CIBO over two years to open and there are many other tales of costly frustration.)
This new booklet is intended to help address these issues; it communicates how the system works. Now the city needs to do its part and make the system work. Since over 50 percent of the city’s operational budget is derived from local business, it behooves our public officials to cultivate business or risk losing market share to far friendlier communities that woo business better than we do — which is in fact happening. Sausalito needs to remain competitive.
The new business guide will be distributed via the chamber and city to landlords and commercial real estate brokers, contractors and other stakeholders. It is also available on both organizations’ websites.
The project is an excellent example of a successful public-private partnership.
The city supported and helped fund the project, which was spearheaded by the BAC, Chamber of Commerce and local businesses. The BAC and chamber are grateful to the city for its support and funding of the project.
Special thanks also to the remarkable contributions made by Butler Shine & Stern Partners, the largest business and employer in Sausalito. The ad agency, which contributes much to the local tax base and revenues, kindly donated the design and production of this handsome new guide.
Copies may be downloaded from the chamber website sausalito.org or picked up at the chamber office at 10 Libertyship Way, Bay 2, Suite 250.
The document is also a marketing piece that will be part of a toolkit to proactively promote Sausalito to potential businesses and encourage economic development in the city. If Sausalito merchants and residents want to support independent retailers — the eclectic business-and-boutique mix we have here now — versus big-box stores and chains, we need to attract these businesses and make it easy for them to open and prosper.
After battling the bureaucracy and delaying their startup, some small businesses have exhausted their resources and can barely afford to open. The longer it takes a business to be operational, the more the city loses as well on sales tax revenues. Unfortunately, Sausalito is not always perceived as “business friendly.” We have a lot to offer businesses (waterfront, tourist traffic, location), but we often make it difficult for a business to get started. (It took CIBO over two years to open and there are many other tales of costly frustration.)
This new booklet is intended to help address these issues; it communicates how the system works. Now the city needs to do its part and make the system work. Since over 50 percent of the city’s operational budget is derived from local business, it behooves our public officials to cultivate business or risk losing market share to far friendlier communities that woo business better than we do — which is in fact happening. Sausalito needs to remain competitive.
The new business guide will be distributed via the chamber and city to landlords and commercial real estate brokers, contractors and other stakeholders. It is also available on both organizations’ websites.
The project is an excellent example of a successful public-private partnership.
The city supported and helped fund the project, which was spearheaded by the BAC, Chamber of Commerce and local businesses. The BAC and chamber are grateful to the city for its support and funding of the project.
Special thanks also to the remarkable contributions made by Butler Shine & Stern Partners, the largest business and employer in Sausalito. The ad agency, which contributes much to the local tax base and revenues, kindly donated the design and production of this handsome new guide.
Copies may be downloaded from the chamber website sausalito.org or picked up at the chamber office at 10 Libertyship Way, Bay 2, Suite 250.
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