If you do business in the L.A. area, you probably complain about how difficult it is. Taxes and regulations can be abundant hereabouts, adding time and costs to your processes. Los Angeles and California are often cited as some of the most unfriendly places to have a business in the Western world.
So it’s refreshing to be reminded that there are places in Los Angeles County, a number of places, in fact, that strive to do the opposite.
Take El Segundo, for example. It has low tax rates and none of the gross receipts taxes that are so aggravating to businesses in the city of Los Angeles. The city tries to reach out to businesses and quickly respond; it has a counter where businesses can walk up to get permits and answers.
“The trick is to be accessible and responsive,” said Barbara Voss, economic development manager of El Segundo. She said businesses that make applications for new construction or significant reconstruction can get all their permits in four to six weeks, usually. If they pay more, they can get them even faster, maybe in two or three weeks. Of course, that’s much quicker than several cities in Los Angeles, where it can take months.
El Segundo last month won the Most Business-Friendly City award from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. Actually, it’s the second time for El Segundo: it won the inaugural award in 2006. Lancaster is the only other city to win it twice, doing so in 2007 and 2013. (After a city wins, it cannot apply for the award for five years.)
So how long does it take to get permits in Lancaster?
“When do you want them?” responded that city’s economic development director, Vern Lawson, implying that the city would do what it takes to accommodate the business.
Lawson pointed out that Lancaster is far from central Los Angeles and about 70,000 residents drive out of Lancaster to work. So the town’s leaders, keenly aware of the need to lure employers, are on a long-term campaign to be business friendly. It helps that City Council members are in the business community. A coup came 2½ years ago when BYD Motors opened a factory in Lancaster to make electric buses.
Both Lawson and Voss talked about the need to be responsive to businesses, to find ways to help, to say “yes” and to keep the roll of red tape shut in the drawer. That’s very important because businesses, while they don’t like paying taxes, really don’t like 17-step procedures and regulations, especially the kind that eat up time. Time is money, after all.
Think about it. If you want to open a restaurant, say, you must secure the real estate and get your equipment inspected and your premises approved. If it takes months to get your permits, that means you’re spending money each month on rent, insurance, equipment leases and the like without any revenue to pay for it. Long lead times like that favor big chains because smaller businesses and individuals often can’t afford to bleed money for months while twiddling their thumbs. That’s why the response time of a city is vital.
If you go down the list of the LAEDC’s business-friendly award winners, you may notice something interesting: Most of the award winners are smaller towns. And they don’t have names like Beverly Hills or Santa Monica. Instead, you see such names as Alhambra, West Covina, Whittier, Santa Clarita, Vernon, La Mirada, the aforementioned Lancaster and Long Beach, which is the biggest city on the list.
The point: Some cities in Los Angeles County, particularly the smaller and less glamorous ones, are willing to fight for your business.
Charles Crumpley is editor of the Business Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].
