tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352780903142089915.post615174754524002286..comments2024-01-12T14:51:23.690-08:00Comments on All Things Wildly Considered: Is That Opportunity Knocking?Frank Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18214921895704057150noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352780903142089915.post-79757242553091616842010-04-15T11:09:19.989-07:002010-04-15T11:09:19.989-07:00Very interesting story. It's amazing the diffe...Very interesting story. It's amazing the difference in the business procedures of both places, especially in close proximity. This illustrates a major problem for attracting business in the city. I am amazed.Frank Thompsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18214921895704057150noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8352780903142089915.post-29697216041498910912010-04-13T07:23:48.617-07:002010-04-13T07:23:48.617-07:00Frank,
As part of our continuing discussion on th...Frank,<br /><br />As part of our continuing discussion on the state of the area, I wanted to share with you an illustration of the problems Portsmouth faces and the complete lack of effort by the city government to do anything about it. As you may or may not know, my mom owns a small business, presently located in Portsmouth. She decided to add a service, requiring health dept. licensing. Here are her own words from a recent email:<br />"I'm trying to talk myself out of moving the business back to Wheelersburg. It's strange how one thing leads to another. The Health Department in Portsmouth is driving me crazy over the tattooing of permanent makeup. They want $300.00 a year for my license, they want to parade 6 different departments through for inspection, each at a cost to me of course, plus of course city income tax. The fact that they just sent their inspectors through last year for the same service and found everything OK doesn't matter. The county on the other hand simply wants $100.00 a year and no income tax, no inspection if I am in a state licensed facility, which of course I have to be for my business.<br />So I decided to rent a room from a friend who owns a similar business in Wheelersburg and my new service 1 or 2 days a week and spend the rest of the week at my business in Portsmouth. While I was in Wheelersburg talking to my friend I decided to drive by the place where I used to<br />be. First of all the traffic was incredible. A steady stream of traffic in both directions. All businesses had cars parked on their lots. And what did my eyes see? The best rental in that strip, the end one, had a for rent sign. So just out of curiosity I called my old landlord to see what the rent would be. It is larger than my old rental and I figured it would be high. Not so! So now I'm crunching numbers. I have no employees to drain my income. I think the visibility on that<br />strip would be fantastic to launch my new service.<br />I have no visibility where I am now and must rely on word of mouth and radio ads which are really high. Today I drove up there again and the streets were even busier.<br />So...I'm going to mull it over for a few days.<br /><br />This is the experience, more or less, of most entrepreneurs in Portsmouth. The city officers are more concerned with lining their pockets and protecting their rice bowls than fostering an economic climate that will stimulate business and jobs, thus making the area a more desirable place to live. As long as the same city council members, or those with the same interests, continue to get elected, the city will continue to deteriorate. The conditions fostered by this graft and corruption make for a perfect environment for drug dealers.<br /><br />The only way to foster opportunity is to elect honest officials who have the expertise and desire to legislate positive changes for the business community. Unfortunately, the best and brightest the area produces, the very people you need to foster this change, are moving away in droves. A vicious cycle indeed.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09578918682897536518noreply@blogger.com