Mount Pleasant Business Programs & Initiatives

Town Proud Certified Local Program

Mount Pleasant’s Town Proud program helps residents, visitors, and business owners identify local businesses that are rooted here and make our coastal community so unique and resilient by diversifying our economy. By recognizing these businesses, we celebrate and promote the character, flavor and culture of this place we call home.

Local businesses should be recognized for the investments they make into our local economy. In appreciation of their contributions to our community, the Town of Mount Pleasant is thrilled to provide the Town Proud Program.

Benefits:

• Your business will be listed as “local” in the Town’s online business directory.
• Your business will receive a printed decal and digital graphics for use on your storefront, website, and digital communications.
• You will gain access to occasional Mount Pleasant local business relationship-building mixers.

Criteria

• The business is privately held and not publicly traded.
• The business is located in the Town of Mount Pleasant and has no corporate or national headquarters outside of the state.
• The business owners who have a controlling interest of more than 50% live in the Lowcountry.
• The business can make independent decisions regarding the name and look of the business, business purchasing, practices and distribution, and pays all their own marketing, rent and other business expenses.

Email open4biz@tompsc.com to participate or sign up here to be contacted.

We value our businesses and understand that our success as a community is tied to the success of our businesses.  The Town offers a Local Vendor Partnership Program as a mutually beneficial opportunity to support our local businesses while ensuring the quality of the products and services the Town procures.

Through this program, businesses located within the Town may apply to receive a “preferred vendor status” as an approved local business.  This means, in the evaluation of pricing proposals or bids submitted, approved vendors will be evaluated as though the prices offered were 5%, 2%, or 1% lower than actually proposed.  This program applies to products, goods, and non-professional services.

• Local Vendor Partnership Flyer & Application

Promote Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant is home to a growing number of nationally-recognized companies. When companies look for a landing pad, they often look for like-industry activity. Where are companies like mine going and becoming successful?  Therefore, it is important the success stories of our businesses are communicated both internally and externally to the community.  Additionally, companies, especially in startup- and growth-modes, continuously seek cost-effective ways to drive business growth.

The Office of Business Development will identify and promote local, existing companies by distributing joint press releases using the PR Web platform through its Wired for Business initiative. This initiative will enable businesses to increase the visibility of their news, reach new audiences, stand out in search, and drive traffic to their websites, all while doing the same for the Town.

The purpose of the Wired for Business initiative is multipronged:

• Promote – locally, regionally and nationally – Mount Pleasant businesses performing exceptional or pioneering work
• Market Mount Pleasant locally, regionally, and nationally as a premier destination for business by highlighting the innovative companies that call Mount Pleasant home
• Incentivize businesses to change their marketing strategies to include “Mount Pleasant-based”

This purpose aligns with the following goals from the Town’s Economic Development Strategy:

• Support the retention and growth of existing industries/businesses, specifically those selling products and services beyond the region (#2)
• Explore methods to improve and attract human capital as a means for economic development (#4)
• Establish a channel of communication and marketing to further develop and maintain support from the community for economic development (#6)

Past Wired for Business stories include:

• Mount Pleasant firm Addresses Skills Gap: STEM Premier Partners with SC Manufacturers Alliance to Launch SC Future Makers
• Internet Demands MOONDOG Releases Willy Grunch: Viral Video Reveals Proof of Concept to Move Forward
• Town Celebrates Entrepreneurship with Region’s Larges Coworking Event

Eligibility to Participate in the Wired for Business Initiative

Companies targeted within the Economic Development Strategy are eligible to participate:

• Companies within the defined competency targets for Mount Pleasant, as well as those with quality jobs compatible with Mount Pleasant’s economic environment
• Software, Creative Design and Logistics
• Healthcare, R&D, Engineering and Tourism
• Priority will be given to businesses that sell products and services beyond the region

To participate, the company must not only fit the above definition, but must also have content substantial and worthy of national news. The content must also fit within the character and vision of the Town of Mount Pleasant’s Economic Development Strategy and must demonstrate a level of exceptionalism and/or be pioneering in their respective field.

Get started by contacting us (open4biz@tompsc.com) with your success story!

Once you’ve gotten your business license and certificate of occupancy, you’re eligible for a ribbon-cutting event. At this event, Town staff will bring the Mayor and Town Council, along with the requisite red ribbons and big scissors, to your business. We will also help distribute photos and information about the opening through our media contacts, website, and social media.

To schedule a ribbon cutting, please reach out to the Business Development Officer, Amy Livingston (open4biz@tompsc.com). She will coordinate with the Clerk of Council and Communications Office to find a day and time to suit your business needs. Ribbon cuttings are held Monday through Friday 8am-5pm.

You are the company you keep.  As such, Mount Pleasant dedicates a week each September to recognizing our business community as valuable Town citizens.  Mount Pleasant Business Appreciation Week is a partnership between the Town and several organizations such as the Mount Pleasant Business Association (MPBA), Charleston County Economic Development, Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, among others.  This dynamic week is filled with social media competitions for businesses, dynamic events, networking opportunities, and culminates in the Mount Pleasant Business Expo.

New for 2016:  We have partnered with the Moultrie News and MPBA to bring the #MtPleasantANCHOR awards recognizing our favorite, longstanding Mount Pleasant Businesses.  From August 15-29^th, we encourage our community to nominate their favorite business that has been docked in the town for at least 20 years.  The top 9 businesses will be recognized leading up to and throughout Business Appreciation Week as the “2016 Town Anchors.”

The 2016 Mount Pleasant Business Appreciation Week will be observed from September 19 – 23^rd and feature the following lineup of events leading up to and during the week:

• Tuesday, September 13 | Proclamation of Business Appreciation Week at Council and Announcement of the 2016 Town Anchors
• September 14-22 | Daily Recognition of the 2016 Town Anchors
• Wednesday, September 21 | 8-9:30am at Alhambra Hall – Breakfast with the Mayor “Entrepreneur Studio” in partnership with the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, Harbor Entrepreneur Center and Mount Pleasant Business association
• Thursday, September 22 | 2-7:00pm Expo, 5-7:00pm Happy Hour with Live Music at the Omar Shrine Center – Mount Pleasant’s largest expo presented by the Mount Pleasant Business Association
• Monday, Tuesday and Friday, September 23 | Surprise Business “House Calls”