AMARILLO, TX -- While the rest of the country is still digging out of the recession, the Panhandle area seems to be fairing better than the rest of the country.
This year alone, Amarillo has issued almost $6 million in permits for both new industrial and non-residential groups.
Members of the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) say now's a great time to start a business along with the "can-do" attitude found across the region.
"It's a great time to create a business, probably as good a time as there'll ever be to start a business," said SBDC Director, P.J. Pronger. "If you create a business now, you're in a position to take advantage of the reload, even if it's a long one, you're still in position. I would like to think what we're seeing is the efforts of the last five years of economic development organizations here to create resources that support entrepreneurship and get their new businesses going."
Pronger says they see an average of about 50 new businesses a year that call on them for assistance.
"There's more interest in self-employment and more interest in entrepreneurship," Pronger added. "More resources for entrepreneurship. So all that together is creating what looks like more interest in that field. To have the resources needed for entrepreneurship and create new businesses, we're set to create those ourselves, we're going to have to run our own programs and that's what we've done."
