Small business is big in California.
Its 4.1 million small businesses represent 99.8% of all businesses in the state. [i] The majority of those small businesses fall into the professional, scientific and technical services sectors. [ii] Cybersecurity, digital content creation, fitness, delivery, pet services and home renovations represent some of the fastest growing small business areas.[iii] Four of the top five metro areas for small business growth are located in Northern California and the Inland Empire (e.g., San Bernardino and Riverside) represents the fastest growing region for small business in Southern California.[iv]
The common denominator among them all is the absolute necessity for high-speed, reliable and secure broadband internet to optimize customer experiences and maximize workflow productivity and opportunity. Federal and state government funding is helping address the need.[v]
And so is Frontier.
Bridging the Divide Between Mountains
Frontier has been instrumental in helping small businesses across its footprint overcome accessibility challenges. Location is one of those challenges. “We’ve struggled to make guests happy because our hands are tied by limited bandwidth in our location,” said Gary Abers, an IT Consultant whose client list includes small businesses like Snow Valley Mountain Resort in Running Springs, California.
The remote ski resort is one of the largest ski communities in Southern California, located in the San Bernardino mountains. The popular getaway has been in operation for more than 80 years. Despite the investment of $9 million in upgrades, bandwidth was an ongoing issue. It had been relying on old T1 copper lines which forced the business to run on 4.5 Mbps of bandwidth – which would drop to as low as 1.5 Mbps when the lines were exposed to inclement weather. When the provider sold the network, the resort was left without any support.
“Snow Valley needed reliable connectivity to process credit cards,” said Gary, “It’s a major part of the business. It doesn’t require a lot of bandwidth, but it does demand a reliable connection and our copper lines weren’t cutting it.”
Frontier went to work on accelerating a digital transformation for the resort that would keep Snow Valley up and running no matter what. The solution involved using high-end microwaves to transmit across mountaintops – including a point-to-point bridge at the top of its famous Slide Peak. Now, it has the best connectivity in its history of operations and not only processes credit cards effortlessly but offers WiFi to its guests providing them with on-the-slopes and online experiences.
Life’s a Beach – With Fiber Internet
Separated by more than 380 miles of coastal cities, prestigious universities, vineyards and farmland, Silicon Beach and Silicon Valley share close tech industry ties, if not borders. Identified as the West-side region of the Los Angeles metroplex, Silicon Beach is home to more than 500 technology companies and startups – including Snapchat and Tinder, which were once small businesses founded there.
Herman Scheer, located in the beach community of Venice in West Los Angeles, is the brand agency of choice for some of these companies like Earthbar and Neuro. However, when their internet service proved unreliable and started impacting productivity and customer service, they switched to Frontier fiber internet and phone service to remain competitive. Once installed, they had the fastest speeds available and service support they could trust to not only be there if they needed them, but to scale with them.
Co-founder John Scheer noted, “As we’re on the cutting edge of technology, design and providing cutting edge products for our customers, it’s important that we have an institutional-like level of reliability and professionalism as the backbone of our business. With Frontier, there’s no question.”
Learn more about how Frontier can help your small business.
*Images courtesy of Snow Valley Mountain Resort and Herman Scheer, respectively.
**All trademarks, tradenames and/or logos mentioned or used are the property of their respective owners.
[i] https://advocacy.calchamber.com/2022/05/03/california-celebrates-national-small-business-week/
[ii] https://lbg-online.net/small-business-statistics/california/
[iii] https://california-business-lawyer-corporate-lawyer.com/11-fastest-growing-small-business-ideas/
[iv] https://www.fundingcircle.com/us/resources/norcal-outpaces-socal-for-fastest-growing-small-business-cities-in-california/
[v] The FCC established the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund in 2020 to distribute $20 billion over 10 years to bring high-speed fixed broadband services to rural households and small businesses, as well as the BEAD Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment) program under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 which will award California another $3.5 billion in infrastructure funding. California’s Senate Bill 156 provides $6 billion in multi-year investment to increase equitable, affordable access to high-speed internet across the state. See the March 2023 Report, “Achieving Universal Broadband in California,” for more information.
