SBJ partners on economic growth survey

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SBJ Economic Growth Survey starts now

A new tool aiming to measure and identify trends in the Springfield business market went live on March 27.

SBJ Publishing Inc. is partnering with H2R Market Research, Enterprise Commercial Group LLC and Classy Llama Studios LLC for an economic growth survey. The results will be available as a multimedia download package on SBJ.net, including case studies, raw data and video interviews.

“I think the time has been here for a while,” said Jennifer Jackson, Springfield Business Journal publisher. “There’s an identifiable gap in what we know and the tools we have for economic development.”

The survey covers Greene, Christian, Webster, Polk and Dallas counties, though Jackson said the focus is on the Springfield area.

Question topics include a business profile snapshot, credit and capital, income and job security, succession plans, environment, real estate, minimum wage, demographics and outlook.

“The idea, assuming this is successful, is to measure it over time and compare year-over-year and eventually have a historical average,” said Jerry Henry, co-owner and partner at H2R, the market research firm that’s conducting the survey and analyzing the collected data.

A public advisory board of more than a dozen stakeholders helped H2R review the survey questions and revise the content of the 38 questions.

The survey is scheduled to be open through April 5. At the conclusion, H2R plans to analyze the data during the next month and reconvene with the public advisory board for additional insight.

Survey results will be shared in forums and presentations in summer, said Marty Goodnight, SBJ’s associate publisher.

The baseline target for responses is 700-800, Goodnight said. The survey, available at SBJ.net/growthsurvey, is estimated to have been sent to 10,000 businesspeople, Henry said.

Classy Llama, an e-commerce and digital marketing agency, will be capturing the process through recorded interviews with board members to give a behind-the-scenes look at how the survey was formed.

In order to gather enough data to identify trends, Enterprise Commercial Group signed on to sponsor the survey for five years for an undisclosed sum.