The city of Kissimmee wants to see its existing businesses thrive.
And, bring new ones in to thrive.
And, see startup companies thrive.
It’s all part of “a healthy economic ecosystem.”
The city stands ready to help and support all of it.
Earlier this month, the Kissimmee City Commission approved Operation Business Boost, an investment of over half a million dollars to support businesses — all businesses — within the city limits.
The new operation, which is really a list of things the city has already been doing but brought under one umbrella to streamline it better, features stackable business assistance and growth programs to help business owners recover from COVID-19’s economic impact.
“In our business community, some thrived during the pandemic, others have struggled, and we hear it,” said Belinda Ortiz Kirkegard, Kissimmee’s economic development director. “As a city, we always want to provide economic development that’s always evolving. It’s not just recruitment, it’s also helping existing companies expand, and there’s the startups who need to grow as part of a healthy economic ecosystem.”
Operation Business Boost will provide easier and more streamlined access to an expanded array of grants (traditional and emergency COVID grants), personalized business coaching, technical business support services and partnership with CareerSource Central Florida, employee training, and salary subsidies.
“It’s been packaged this way to get the message out that there’s free help available to our business committee, and introduce new programs,” said Kirkegard, who noted the city’s already fielded inquiries about the program, which is less than a month old. “It’s here, it’s streamlined — what our City Commission wanted — and it’s designed to maximize the time of people busy running their businesses. We don’t want them to have to attend meetings for the sake of being at meetings.
“It’s designed to make sense in how we’d like to see our city grow. We want to showcase and create a program that demonstrates everything that we offer. Cities will lose a company because they’re not being paid attention to.”
The City will also continue to sponsor businesses to participate in its GrowthWheel program. It provides six months of customized business coaching. In early 2021, the city sponsored six companies in it as a pilot program, and based on their success — all saw a minimum of 10 percent increase in revenue — Kissimmee will roll it out again in early 2022 to 10 companies.
City of Kissimmee entrepreneurs who want (or need) to give their businesses a boost, and get more help in less time, can visit www.kissimmee.gov/businessboost for more information.
