Inspiring Ideas: One-Stop Shop for Business Start-Up

Posted on | April 18, 2008 | No Comments

Every now and again the Brits have a few useful ideas that we’d like to “borrow”.  This one’s a veritable box of goodies.  The Brits call it Flexible Support for Business.  I call it a miracle, one that I hope is reproducible…and relocatable.

Amazon recently set out to open a distribution center in Jersey Marine, Neath Port Talbot, a facility that will employ 1,200 full-time employees and 1,500 seasonal employees.

Once government officials heard that Amazon company officials were interested in locating the center in their area, they sprang into action–scouting sites, helping with regulatory issues, recruiting and financing the new center.  From start to finish, the whole process took just 96 days.

If you’ve ever tried to start up a business, you know that 96 days is paltry.  It takes more time to write a business plan or find the right location.

That’s good, but here’s the miracle.  The day after they finished the deal with Amazon, the Neath Port Talbot Council announced its new Flexible Support for Business model (no bazillion dollar investment in feasibility studies, no voting on it, no red tape).  Under the model, businesses can call a single phone number and find an expert to handle site selection, recruiting, finance and more.

I love this idea because it proves that if government is truly invested in attracting investment and jobs to a city or state, they can and will act QUICKLY to make it happen–something we could use right about now.

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