June is National Safety Month and marks the official start of the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Small businesses are vital assets to our economy and community, which is why the Office of Economic Vitality encourages all businesses to get prepared! Every organization has unique vulnerabilities and can’t always avoid disasters, but having a plan helps minimize […]

By: MWSBE Team Bid responses involve a strategic approach with detailed text and graphics that mirror the understanding of the compliance of your company with the criteria. It is important that during this process, you highlight your companies’ certifications, credentials, services, and products offered. For your response for a bid to be effective, you need […]

By: Kevin Gehrke, Business Development Manager, Applied Science As we slowly exit the COVID-19 pandemic, markets will begin to open bringing rise to the need for labor, more importantly, skilled labor. In preparation, we, as a community, need to understand how the labor market has changed and if the change will remain permanent. Many industries […]

Next week, May 9 through May 15, marks International Economic Development Week, which was created and initiated by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). At OEV, we are excited to celebrate this week by bringing awareness to the local advancement opportunities that aim to strengthen our local economy. On Monday, May 10, I am happy […]

Shanea Wilks, Senior Coordinator Last week, the Leon County School Board (LCS) approved changes to their small business criteria to align more closely with OEV’s and the Office of Supplier Diversity’s Small Business Enterprise (SBE) criteria. As a direct result, small businesses working with the State, City, County, Blueprint, and LCS will now follow the […]

T.J. Lewis, Business Development Manager For the first quarter of 2021, nearly a year into the coronavirus pandemic, new data shows that apartment developers have drawn back on multi-family activity nationwide. Currently in the United States, 565,000 apartments are under construction compared to more than 700,000 at this point in 2020. Large declines have been […]

Richard Fetchick, Business Intelligence Manager The Covid-19 pandemic created a fast-acting recession with immediate impacts to employment and business bottom lines. Unlike the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis, Leon County’s employment dipped by 20,000 in April 2020 – just the second month of the crisis – whereas employment hit its low point following the sub-prime crisis […]

From driving innovation to promoting social change, entrepreneurship plays a major role in the economy of our city, state, and nation. Entrepreneurship enhances economic growth, creates job opportunities, and enables new markets to be developed through the unique offerings of new goods and services. Great innovators have the ability to change the world for the […]

Dan Lucas, Division Coordinator Tallahassee’s universities have a constant flow of incoming students and outgoing graduates. Florida State University and Florida A&M University together account for around 80% of the 65,000 students enrolled in higher education in Leon County. According to data from the Board of Governors of the State University System of Florida, about […]

Drew Dietrich, Deputy Director Tallahassee is known for many things – endless outdoor adventures, Southern Hospitality, unrivaled festivals, and you guessed it, college football. But hiding just beneath the surface is a little known truth – there’s an awful lot of knowledgeable and skilled people walking around. In 2020, Tallahassee ranked as the 17th most […]