Business Retention and Expansion Final Report - City of Brantford

21MethodologyThe Business Retention and Expansion project methodology involves interviewing either a specific sector within acommunity (ie: Manufacturing/Industrial only) or a cross-sector sample (ie: several economic sectors) of the community.Components of the survey include a main series of questions administered to all interviewees and shorter sector-specificcomponents that are included where appropriate.Confidentiality played a key role in the success of this survey project. The confidentiality rule was strictly reinforced bythe surveyors in the field, and by all staff and volunteers involved in this project.Determining how to sample a population must be a consistent, transparent process and must be easily reportable to anumber of audiences.Using the input and advice from the OMAFRA - Rural Economic Development Branch, a sampling plan was created forthe project that involved:1. Clearly defining survey objectives.2. Determining the criteria of the sample size.3. Identifying Confidence Level and Margin of Error/Confidence Interval.4. Creation of a consistent stratified sampling plan for both the tourism survey and downtown district of Brantford(sub sectors).5. Implementation of a random sampling process when selecting businesses/organizations to be interviewed. 3Survey ObjectivesThe Business Retention and Expansion Survey results will act as a voice for the tourism sector in Brantford, the County ofBrant, Six Nations, and New Credit areas as well as the downtown district of Brantford.• To compile an initial list of input and opinion from the survey participants regarding key issues to be addressedby the community• Address urgent business and organization issues• Improve and grow the relationship between businesses, organizations and the community• Encourage economic stability• Build a positive business/organization environment for success• Create a platform to voice concerns about what type of assistance is needed to help businesses/organizationto survive• An opportunity to build cooperation amongst a variety of community partners local businesses/organizations,municipal government, and small business• Participation and community engagement are key• Create jobs• Improve business and community competitiveness• Assist the municipality in developing long term strategy for economic development3 Understanding Your Local Economy and Developing a Sample Plan, BR+E Training Manual, 2006.