When it comes to starting a business in Palm Coast, there's more than enough reasons for entrepreneurs and small businesses alike to take notice. Take for example our ever-flourishing economy or nimbleness for inclusive growth opportunities – which together destine us to be the prime location for North Florida's start-up ecosystem. Yet whatever the appeal, the 4,500+ businesses that call Palm Coast "home" love being here and we love having them.

Our love is rooted in our community legacy of continually coming together to support, share goals and ideas and connecting with one another. Being that it's in our DNA, we support small businesses and entrepreneurs, and want nothing more for them to grow and prosper. Some of our tools and guidance in doing so, include:

Palm Coast is pleased to have renewed its agreement to offer a wide variety of assistance to local businesses through the Florida Small Business Development Center (FSBDC). The Florida SBDC provides aspiring and existing small businesses with no-cost consulting, low-cost training, and access to business data and research resources. Hosted by the University of Central Florida (UCF), the FSBDC at UCF again has dedicated resources in Palm Coast and is part of Florida SBDC Network.

The FSBDC at UCF-Palm Coast supports an extensive list of business disciplines, including Accounting, Finance, Marketing, and Operations. Start-up and New Venture Consulting and Technical Assistance related to preliminary patent searches, patents, copyright and trademark, and technology transfer.

Assisting are certified business consultants who set the FSBDC apart from other service providers. Its trained and experienced consultants are available to discuss ideas and provide personalized, confidential guidance free of charge. Areas in which FSBDC consultants can help include: business planning, market research, industry research, advertising, financial analysis, loan assistance, recordkeeping, taxes, selling to the government, business valuation, business start-up and more.

In 2018, the Community Redevelopment Agency reevaluated Palm Coast's Town Center, located in the Community Redevelopment Area (CRA). The area has been largely infrastructure-ready for several years, yet, the vision for Town Center had never fully been realized. In over a ten year period, Town Center had only reached a 17% developed threshold at the beginning of 2018. Yet, with a fresh look at the area and new approach, the Agency made developing Town Center a high priority.

Through research and analysis, the Agency found that an Innovation District would not only be a great fit for growing Town Center, but also would be economically, socially, and culturally viable for the future for Palm Coast. As defined by the Brookings Institute, an Innovation District, "facilitates the creation and commercialization of new ideas and support for economies by growing jobs in ways that leverage their distinct economic attributes." For Palm Coast, we plan to build on the Innovation District vision by leveraging proximity, density, authenticity and fostering it to become an experiential-living hub where our residents can live, work and play.

For investors, the Opportunity Zone program offers tax incentives to citizens who re-invest their unrealized capital gains into Opportunity Funds dedicated to investing in designated census tracts. The program provides deferral and reduction of capital gains taxes when the gain is invested in a Qualified Opportunity Fund and maintained for at least five years. Additional tax incentives are available for investments held for periods of seven and 10 years.