Whiteside offers new website with free data, research, advice to help small businesses succeed

MORRISON – Whiteside County Economic Development is offering a new website designed to help small businesses succeed.

SizeUpWhitesideCountyIL, available at https://www.whiteside.org/departments/economic-development.html, provides its users with free market research so they can make data-driven decisions using analysis that historically has been available only to big corporations, the department said in a news release.

“We want all of our small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs to be able to make informed, data-driven decisions, so that they can be more successful and reduce the risk of any new business failures,” Whiteside County Economic Development Director Gary Camarano said in the release.

SizeUpWhitesideCountyIL’s information can help small-business owners:

• Rank their industry performance across multiple measurements.

• Discover potential new customers and suppliers.

• Target advertising and marketing to ideal customers.

• Analyze the demographics of nearby customers and prospective employees.

Aspiring entrepreneurs can use the data to test, verify, or reject assumptions that will enable them to develop a better business plan for opening their company and reduce the risk of failure by better preparing them with quality information, the release said.

The software powering the SizeUpWhitesideCountyIL was recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce as an app that helps American businesses be more competitive, improve their success, foster prosperity, and create more jobs, it said.

Whiteside County Economic Development promotes and supports the county region, and businesses; it provides guidance with incentives and financial resources; and encourages network opportunities.

Go to https://www.whiteside.org/departments/economic-development.html or https://www.nwillinoisadvantage.com/, or email econdev@whiteside.org for more information on SizeUp or any other of the its programs.