Survey Shows Business Owners Like East Haven

The Economic Development Commission has done a survey of local businesses to find out what they like about East Haven and some of the findings are surprising.

"The number one answer was the banking services that are available," said commission Chairman Robert Limoncelli.

Another was the town’s location, which enables businesses to draw customers from the shoreline communities to the east who prefer not to hassle with the traffic congestion and construction of New Haven, he said.

Limoncelli and Director of Town Affairs Paul Hongo said the town would use the survey to develop an economic development marketing strategy to attract more businesses to East Haven.

Limoncelli said the marketing strategy would involve "branding" the town, which might include creating a logo and a slogan to give East Haven an easily recognizable identity.

The next step would be to make a video presentation of the survey results starring Mayor April Capone, then a breakfast meeting with the East Haven Chamber of Commerce.

About 700 survey questionnaires went out to businesses in town, and nearly 70 responded, "which I think is about right for a first-time survey," said Hongo.

"We’re excited about it and we think it will generate interest in the business community," he added.

The majority of responses were from businesses that have been open in town for at least 10 years, and all said they would stay in East Haven if their lease expired and they had to move. Limoncelli said that was a good vote of confidence from people who know the town well, business owners who have been here awhile.

He said the respondents reported that about half of their customers are East Haven residents and half are from other towns. They were almost equally divided on whether they expected to expand their businesses in 2011, and 4 percent said they were service sector businesses.

Limoncelli thought the answer about banking services in town was a surprise, but it pointed out an unexpected advantage for marketing the town. East Haven has numerous bank branches, which business owners must use frequently during the business day, he said. 

The survey also revealed that business people like the appearance of the town. Limoncelli said some of the comments mentioned how well the East Haven Town Green, town parks and beaches were kept up. He thought that meant town beautification efforts were paying off.

Hongo said respondents made several transportation-related suggestions. One was a request to make it easier to get from the north side of Frontage Street to the south side.

Business people also wanted to know how to use Tweed Airport to bring more business to town. That indicates the importance of transportation facilities to local businesses, Hongo said.

By and large, local businesses were happy about how easy it was for their customers to reach them, he said.

Limoncelli said he wrote the survey questionnaire, keeping the questions short, easy-to-fill-out, multiple choice responses, because he thought fewer business owners would take the time to respond to questions asking for longer, written comments.

He asked the respondents to describe their businesses and report what advantages they got from doing business in East Haven.

Fifty-three percent said they had been in business in East Haven for at least 15 years, 63 percent said they owned their business (as opposed to leasing it), and 100 percent said they would stay in East Haven if they had to move their location.

In fact, 41 percent said their location was the primary advantage for doing business in East Haven, something Limoncelli, a lifelong resident with family roots here, was especially happy about.

"This is a great town," he said.

Download the movie