Economic metrics are the focus of community dashboard
By Maura Teynor
February 3, 2017
A new website has been launched to track the economic health of the local community. RichlandVitalSigns.com is a key piece of the Richland County Foundation’s five-year transformative economic development strategic plan.
The website is part of a plan developed by community leaders to focus on traditional economic development: business retention and expansion, workforce development, and entrepreneurship.
The goal of Richland Vital Signs is to inform and inspire economic growth and opportunities. It is a dashboard to provide data and statistical analysis to track outcomes.
Focusing on existing businesses and helping them grow will expand the county’s economic base. The workforce is critical because people are the greatest economic nutrient required to boost future growth. At the same time, supporting entrepreneurs will ensure that the economy of the next generation is stronger than the current one.
Foundation President Brady Groves said, “Our local economy is at a pivotal point. Local leaders need metrics in order to make calculated investments and take action in this arena.”
The website tracks local, state and national metrics for economic development, workforce, and entrepreneurship.
Each metric has additional information including analysis of performance, metric definition, its importance and benchmark information. The metrics are color coded green, yellow or red to indicate if it is in the desired range.
The Foundation also created a Richland County Resource Guide for Entrepreneurs. Links to richlandvitalsigns.com and the resource guide are available on several community websites including richlandcountyfoundation.org.
