On our recent trip to London, Waterloo and Toronto, Ontario, we met leaders in the academic, entrepreneur, investment and enterprise communities as we shared the mission and work of MAPLE Business Council. We followed up by asking those we met to complete a brief survey on their interest and impressions on doing business in Southern California. While the number of responses was small and not projectable, those who took the time to complete our survey indicated a very strong interest in the Southern California market. Among our findings are:
- 85% of respondents responded with a 4 or 5 out of 5 on their interest in working in the region
- Strengths of the Southern California market are viewed as having a strong investment climate and networking opportunities
- Key challenges to doing business in SoCal are fragmented communities, travel/time zones, and immigration laws
- Top concerns for businesses seeking to expand to Southern California include taxes, regulatory navigation & support, channels & distribution and hiring Canadian talent (ie Visas)
- There is a high interest in engaging the services of an Economic Development Organization to navigate the region
We've summarized the results of the brief survey below. Thank you to our Marketing Analyst, Mr. Mike Rosenbaum HBA, a MBA candidate at the Ivey Business School, Western University, London, Canada for his work in fielding the survey and analyzing the results.
The survey results affirm the opportunity to do more liaison between Ontario and Southern California where the opportunities for Ontario businesses to grow into Southern California can be supported with in-market navigation and expert resources - many of which are represented within the MAPLE cross-border community.
