(photo courtesy of GO-Biz)
To say maneuvering California’s permitting process is tricky would be an understatement. In reality, the myriad of forms and documents present something of a seemingly insurmountable mountain in the way of getting your business off the ground. With California making great strides in its quest through economic recovery, now is not the time for permits to impede business.
Such is the logic behind the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development’s decision to revamp its popular permitting resource CalGOLD. While the update did include getting the resource up to speed with new business sectors, the key portion of the update was the unveiling of a mobile web interface where users, from Android and iOS devices alike, can locate which local, state and federal permits apply to their business from the palm of their hand.
“CalGOLD already provides thousands of businesses with a quick and easy tool to help them start a new enterprise, expand an existing one, and create new jobs,” said GO-Biz Director Kish Rajan. “But today’s improvements give CalGOLD the ability to do so at the ever increasing pace of California business. The Golden State’s businesses are innovating new models every day and it’s up to GO-Biz to match that by finding ways for state government to make doing business easier.”
The city of San Francisco launched a similar digital effort to give small businesses in the city a one-stop permit shop for all the forms needed to get up and running in what many would call a cumbersome process.
Moves like these are a step in the right direction and one the California Economic Summit applauds. A critical aspect of the continued growth of our economy is to identify where regulatory bottlenecks are and eliminate them. That’s one of the charges of the Summit’s Regulations Action Team.
Creating CalGOLD in the first place is significant but that’s only part of the battle. Just as noteworthy are this new effort to keep it up-to-date and as user accessible as possible and efforts by the Summit and others to streamline running a business in California.
By continuing to improve what is already viewed as a noteworthy resource, California’s future business owners are positioned to take on the permitting process in a way that is as efficient as ever before. The aggravation and headaches that come with permits probably won’t go the way of the dodo bird any time soon, but CalGOLD is online ibuprofen for California’s future entrepreneurs.
