(PRWEB) April 13, 2015
In January 2015, Downtown Frederick Partnership’s Business Development Committee launched the third annual Business Performance Survey to learn more about doing business in Downtown Frederick and the effectiveness of the Partnership. The Partnership received a total of 105 responses from Downtown Frederick businesses, exceeding the Committee’s target number of 100 responses.
The Partnership is pleased to report that 2014 was a good year for Downtown Frederick businesses. Forty nine percent of respondents rated their business performance as above average or excellent, up six percent from 2013 and up nineteen percent from 2012. Twelve percent of respondents rated their performance as excellent.
The Downtown Frederick Business community expects 2015 to be a better year. Sixty eight percent describe their overall economic outlook for 2015 as slightly or much better than 2014, up from fifty-three percent in the previous survey. Businesses are planning to increase their number of employees (fifty three percent will add one to two employees in the next year) and will project to add at least 95 new jobs in Downtown Frederick in 2015.
Downtown Frederick Partnership rated high with the business community. On a scale of one to ten, the merchant community rated the Partnership’s performance as an eight. When asked what the best services that the Partnership provides to the merchants, eighty two percent recognized special events, eighty one percent recognized the communication of community news, seventy one percent recognized the marketing of Downtown Frederick and sixty percent recognized the improvements to the streetscape.
A broad spectrum of the downtown merchant community participated in the survey. Nearly forty percent of respondents have been in business ten years or longer and twenty percent have been in business less than two years. Respondents who recognized their business as a specialty shop or clothing and accessories boutique represented sixty three percent of the respondents.
Downtown Frederick Partnership works to enhance, promote and preserve the vitality of Downtown Frederick by implementing the national Main Street Program for the benefit of Frederick business, residents and visitors.
Contact: Kara