PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — When Irene Grant decided to open a small business on Girard Avenue, she was flummoxed by the various permit, license and clearance requirements.
“I had to run here to get that, I had to run there to get that, then I had to go back to the same man that told me to go over there. It was crazy,” she said.
Mayor Cherelle Parker hopes to eliminate that sort of run-around with the Open for Business Executive Order she signed Monday. It creates a “one-stop shop” for opening, operating and expanding a business in Philadelphia.
Commerce Director Alba Martinez says their office analyzed what it takes to open a business in Philadelphia and inventoried 96 permits, licenses, certifications and registrations that the city requires for 53 different business types.
She says large restaurants must go through 26 steps just to open and operate.
Martinez says the mayor’s Business Action Team — formerly the Office of Business Services, renamed and refocused in Monday’s executive order — is assessing how to reduce steps, accelerate those that remain, improve payment systems, and provide assistance for businesses. Reducing red tape for food businesses is the first project.
“When businesses succeed, we succeed, and we want to be here every step to assist,” Martinez said.
Parker says they are committed to “elevating efficient government services that are streamlined, user friendly and accessible.”