SizeUp Greater Vidalia Provides Help to Small Businesses

The Greater Vidalia Chamber and Toombs County Development Authority are supporting local small businesses by providing a new, online program called SizeUp Greater Vidalia. “The Chamber and Authority are committed to helping small businesses move forward with the tools and information they need to reopen, recover, and emerge even stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Michele Johnson, President of the Chamber and Executive Director of the Development Authority. SizeUp

SizeUp Greater Vidalia delivers powerful market research and business intelligence so local businesses can make data-driven decisions using analysis that has historically only been available to big corporations. The service is available for free to all local businesses in Toombs and Montgomery Counties on the Greater Vidalia Chamber website at www.greatervidaliachamber. com and the Toombs County Development Authority website at www. toombsconnect.com. In today’s information economy, businesses without access to information are at a higher risk of failure and stunted growth.

“We want to offer small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs the ability to make informed, data-driven decisions to achieve greater success and reduce the risk of any new business failures,” said John Robison, Board Chair, Toombs County Development Authority.

Small businesses are essential to economic health:

• 99.9% of all busi nesses are small businesses.

• Small businesses

create 425% more net new jobs than big businesses.

• Locally owned busi – nesses contribute more to the economy through the “economic multiplier” of increased re-spending of dollars in the local economy.

• Half of the national

gross domestic product comes from small business.

• New businesses are

currently starting at the fastest rate in the last 15 years.

SizeUp helps local businesses by providing them industry data analysis that empowers them to: • Rank their industry

performance across multiple measurements.

• Discover competi tors, customers, and suppliers.

• Target ideal custom ers in more optimal marketing areas.

• Analyze the demo graphics of nearby customers and prospective talent. Aspiring entrepreneurs can use the data to test, verify, or reject assumptions that will enable them to develop a better business plan for opening their company and to reduce the risk of failure by better preparing them with quality information.

“Small businesses are the economic foundation and engine of our local economy. We are committed to supporting them with the information they need to be more successful. We are helping to level the business playing field by providing our local businesses with market research and business insights that have typically only been available to well-funded and large corporations,” said Garrett Wilcox, Marketing Committee Chair, Toombs County Development Authority.

The software powering SizeUp Greater Vidalia ® won the 1st Place award from the United States Department of Commerce for a business app that helps American businesses be more competitive, improve their success, foster prosperity, and create more jobs.