At a Glance
Too many young people are leaving Pensacola because they do not see enough opportunity to build a career, buy a home, start a family, and plant roots here.
Pensacola already has important economic development efforts focused on recruiting employers, supporting startups, and promoting our region. Those efforts matter, but they should not be the whole strategy.
We also need to focus on helping local companies that are already here, already employing people, and ready to grow. My goal is to add the Economic Gardening model — identifying local growth companies, connecting them with better data and support, and helping them reach customers beyond our local market.
Why Good Jobs Matter
Good jobs give people a reason to stay.
When young people leave Pensacola, it is often not because they dislike the city. They leave because they are looking for opportunity — career paths, income growth, stability, and a realistic chance to build a future.
If Pensacola wants to retain young people and attract families, we need more than a beautiful waterfront and strong community identity. We need an economy that gives people a path forward.
Think of a local economy like a bathtub: local spending moves money around inside the tub, but companies that sell to outside markets turn on the faucet by bringing new money into the community. To create more good jobs and more wealth, we need more local companies selling products and services to customers outside our region.
Important Details
- FloridaWest is already doing important conventional economic development work for Greater Pensacola — promoting the region’s workforce, infrastructure, business climate, available sites, and target industries.
- CO:LAB is also an important part of the local ecosystem as a business incubator and growth accelerator.
- Traditional economic development often focuses on recruitment: attracting companies from somewhere else and competing with other communities for relocations or expansions.
- Economic Gardening focuses on growing from within — building a nurturing environment for local entrepreneurs, especially second-stage growth companies.
- Stage 2 companies are past the survival stage but not yet large corporations. They already have customers, employees, and proof of market.
- These companies are often responsible for a large share of job creation, but they may not have the internal research or strategy resources available to larger firms.
- Many local growth companies do not need another generic seminar. They need specific, practical intelligence: market research, customer data, competitor analysis, and digital strategy.
- Pensacola should view Economic Gardening as an added strategy — not a replacement for FloridaWest, CO:LAB, the Chamber, or existing partners.
My Proposal
Pensacola should keep recruiting new employers, but we should also put more focus on growing the companies that are already here.
The next major employer in Pensacola may not be a company we recruit from somewhere else. It may already be here.
- Identify local Stage 2 companies that are positioned for growth.
- Prioritize companies that sell outside the local market or have the potential to do so.
- Provide targeted support: market research, customer data, competitor analysis, industry intelligence, and digital strategy.
- Build stronger connections between growing local companies and workforce partners, lenders, mentors, universities, and regional economic development organizations.
- Work with FloridaWest, CO:LAB, the Chamber, UWF, Pensacola State College, and private-sector partners to create a clearer pipeline for business growth.
- Help local companies find new customers in outside markets so more money flows into Pensacola.
- Make good job creation a specific goal of the city’s economic development strategy.
- Track results: job growth, wage growth, revenue growth, outside-market sales, and local business expansion.
What Success Looks Like
Success means more young people can see a future in Pensacola.
It means more local companies are growing, hiring, and selling beyond our region.
For local businesses, success means better access to the information, connections, and support they need to scale.
For workers, success means more career opportunities, better wages, and a stronger reason to stay in Pensacola.
For the city, success means a broader tax base, stronger neighborhoods, and a local economy less dependent on one industry or one recruitment win.
For young people, success means they do not have to leave Pensacola to find opportunity.