Business Assistance

Grays Harbor County and its support agencies want your business to grow and prosper. Whether it's helping to find employees, resolving regulatory problems, analyzing operations for effectiveness or just getting a business started, we provide consulting services for your successful efforts.

Business Start-up

Starting a business is difficult and requires dedicated effort. The Grays Harbor EDC can help make it a little easier.

To get you started on your business planning, click financing and planning.

Click business plan outline to download a business plan template in Word format.

The EDC provides no-cost assistance to anyone starting a business in Grays Harbor County. Just give us a call. We can provide helpful information on financing, marketing and operating your business. And there is additional help available. Once you have completed a business plan, a local representative from the Small Business Development Center will sit down with you to review your business and provide helpful information.

Click SBDC to learn more about this organization.

Impact Washington

The Grays Harbor Economic Development Council serves as the Grays Harbor County representative for Impact Washington, a not-for-profit Washington organization with the singular goal of helping make Washington manufacturers more competitive.

Through Impact’s affiliation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Impact can help link manufacturers with local expertise and with hard-to-access national resources. Impact is the primary source for LEAN manufacturing technique training and education.

Visit their website or contact us for more information and a free consultation.

Permitting

The following are very general guidelines for project permitting in Grays Harbor County based upon our experience. Information about a specific company, its products, and waste-stream, exhaust, water needs and soil-loading requirements will affect the following timelines given.

  1. SEPA Checklist: SEPA (Washington State Environmental Policy Act) is a checklist that must be completed and given to the proper city or county controlling agency for its review and determination. The checklist includes building drawings, engineering drawings, storm water requirements, etc. One of three possible findings is made by the controlling agency:
    • DNS (Determination of Non-Significance) that usually takes about 14 days, or
    • MDNS (Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance), or
    • EIS (Environmental Impact Statement), a very detailed impact analysis.
  2. JARPA Permit Application: JARPA (Joint Aquatic Resource Permit Application) is required whenever the project is near a water source. The joint application includes shoreline, clean air, waste, fish and wildlife, and other permits. Fortunately, JARPA can be done in parallel with SEPA.
  3. JARPA Oversight: The Department of Ecology has oversight responsibility for the checklists and permits for all projects requiring JARPA. Therefore it is important to include DOE from the very beginning of the project. It is also important to include the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Department of Natural Resources since these agencies often have overlapping responsibilities with DOE.
  4. Building permits: Building permits should always be applied for in parallel with SEPA and JARPA at the city’s permitting office of your business location or with the county.

For more detailed information about a specific project, please contact us.

Business Index

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