Why comprehensive local business data is critical for economic development and business license enforcement

In today's rapidly evolving economic landscape, cities and counties need more than good intentions to foster thriving local economies—they need actionable data. One of the most powerful assets for economic development is a robust database of local businesses.

Whether you're a local official trying to attract investment, a city planner shaping commercial corridors, or an enforcement officer responsible for business compliance, access to reliable business data isn't a luxury—it's essential.

Economic development starts with knowing who’s here

Before you can grow your local economy, you need to understand it. Comprehensive local business data provides:

• A real-time economic snapshot: Knowing what types of businesses operate in your area, where they’re located, how many people they employ, and what industries are growing or shrinking is foundational to smart economic planning

• Informed decision-making: When local governments know where gaps in services or industries exist, they can tailor incentives, zoning, or workforce programs to fill those needs

• Effective outreach and support: Economic development agencies can’t support businesses they don’t know exist. A complete business database ensures that outreach, training, and funding opportunities reach all corners of the local economy, including small and minority-owned businesses that are often overlooked

The challenges of building a good business database

That being said, creating and maintaining an accurate and up-to-date local business database is not as straightforward as it may seem. Many municipalities face common challenges, such as:

• Fragmented data sources: Business information often resides in multiple, siloed systems—such as licensing departments, tax offices, chambers, and miscellaneous spreadsheets collected from various surveys and events—and often with conflicting data points, making it hard to consolidate into a single source of truth

• Data decay: Businesses open and close frequently. Without regular updates, databases quickly become outdated, leading to misinformed policy and wasted outreach

• Unregistered or informal businesses: Many small, home-based, or informal businesses don’t register with the city, making them invisible to traditional data collection efforts

• Limited capacity: Many smaller jurisdictions lack the staff, time, or resources to build a high-quality database from scratch

Bludot: Better data as the foundation

This is why at Bludot, we have taken on this challenge. Data is central to what we do. We know that just by providing a good economic development CRM is not enough, it’s the data that makes the tool 10x more impactful. 

Imagine having access to:

• A complete list of your local businesses, including their employee sizes, revenue sizes, year of establishment, industry sector, and various website and contact information from the first time you log in

• Refreshed monthly giving you ongoing updates about new businesses we found and businesses that closed

• Insights dashboard that lets you track economic trends over time, monitor how business activity changes neighborhood by neighborhood, and shows prospective investors and developers a clear picture of local economic vitality and opportunities.

When local leaders can point to credible, up-to-date business data, it builds confidence among investors, state partners, and the community.

Business license enforcement

When combined with your city’s business license data, this is where even more magic happens. 

Business license enforcement often suffers from one core issue: invisibility. If a business isn’t on the city’s radar, it may be operating without the necessary permits, licenses, or inspections. Not only does this represent lost revenue for the city, it can also lead to unfair competition and expose the community to businesses that potentially don’t meet the safety, health, and zoning requirements. 

A comprehensive business dataset, layered with your city’s businesses license data, allows you to:

• Automatically identify unregistered businesses with the click of a button, instead of manually pounding the pavement

• Timely updates each month to identify new businesses proactively

• Target enforcement efficiently and encourage compliance

Uplevel your economic development

If economic development and equitable business growth is of importance for your city, your local business data can’t be an afterthought—it has to be a priority. From planning and outreach to compliance and enforcement, knowing who’s doing business in your community is the first step toward building a thriving local economy.

Collecting and maintaining high-quality business data doesn’t have to be expensive or manual. We have dedicated a significant amount of our technical expertise into solving this exact challenge so you don’t have to. And we are not stopping here. In the coming months and years, we will continue to innovate and deliver to you the best data possible so we can empower you to do the best work possible in your communities. 

See why 200+ economic development agencies across 30 states have already added this to their must-have toolkit. Schedule some time today.