This is an aerial view of Eden Prairie’s Golden Triangle Industrial Park. Your view of the Golden Triangle in this photo is looking north. The edges of the triangle are three major highways: 169 on the east side of the triangle; 212 on the west side of the triangle; and I-494 on the south side of the triangle. The Golden Triangle is a major source of jobs in our community. More than 20,000 people travel into and out of the Golden Triangle area to work every business day.
But one of the findings of our 2005 Business Satisfaction Survey is that 24% of Eden Prairie businesses operate out of private homes. Another fact is that 70% of our businesses employee 10 or fewer fulltime employees. Small business is the dominant business form in America, and Eden Prairie is no exception to that.
City staff presented the results of our 2005 Business Satisfaction Survey to the City Council at the Council’s December 13 Workshop meeting. The 2005 survey is a follow-up to our original baseline Business Satisfaction Survey from 2002. Eden Prairie is a business-focused community. We are not a mere bedroom community for the Twin Cities. There are as many jobs in Eden Prairie as there are people. That’s a significant statement about the community. It’s important that city government recognize that and pay attention to what’s happening in the business community here.
The 2005 survey was conducted by a company called MarketLine Research using a computer-aided telephone interviewing system. The survey team conducted 400 interviews. On average, it took 15 call attempts to complete each interview. The average interview lasted 14 minutes. To qualify for the interview the respondent had to be an owner, president, or manager of a business operating with the corporate limits of the City of Eden Prairie. The survey has a margin of error of 4.9%.
Over the next couple of days I am going to come back to this particular subject a few times and share the nuggets of wisdom that we’ve gained from this survey. Not only the new stuff, but also comparing our 2005 results to the baseline survey from 2002.
More soon……
