Your business didn’t stop, but it probably changed. Starting in March, many states adopted shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of COVID-19. These orders changed how many of our customers conducted business, so we changed too.

For the past eight weeks, the Golden Isles Development Authority team worked closely with regional and state partners to adopt our service model and meet our customers’ changing needs.

Launched Coastal-Strong.com to provide a one-stop location for our local businesses to navigate the CARES ACT and related events

Connected with over 130 Glynn County-based companies to ensure that they were aware of the resources available to them

Provided one Share the Future Grant to help generate local mask production for our manufacturing companies

Participated in a digital roundtable hosted by Southern Economic Development Council to share our community’s best practices on the response and recovery from the pandemic

Increased email communication frequency to ensure that they were receiving relevant and timely information on COVID-19, or resources, that could impact their business- eight newsletters sent in total.

Initiated COVID-19 Business Assessment Survey to understand and report the effect of the pandemic on our local businesses.

Virtual celebration of National Small Business Week to highlight the outstanding stories of our local small businesses and how they have innovated and adapted to new business models during the pandemic.

Although how we all did business has changed as a result of the pandemic, our mission has remained unchanged. At the forefront of our work is the mission to promote economic prosperity for Brunswick and Glynn County by assisting retention and expansion of existing industries and securing new diversified industries to locate here and creating job opportunities and capital investments.

We are revising our strategy to deliver programs and resources that our existing businesses need today and new approaches in attracting industries to grow with us in the future.

The world has changed dramatically since the pandemic started, and the Golden Isles Development Authority is prepared to meet those changes in service to our community.

Our staff is making their safe return to the office, but remember, we can always be reached with your preferred communication channel. Contact our team today to start the conversation on moving forward together.