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Fort Lauderdale launches free 'Size Up FTL' small-business tool, city to fund subscription
Summary
City staff introduced Size Up FTL, a free online business-intelligence suite for local entrepreneurs; the city paid an initial $12,488 and will pay $9,488 annually while providing outreach and technical-assistance workshops to encourage use.
D. Dafany Sainville, public affairs manager for the city of Fort Lauderdale, introduced “Size Up FTL,” a free online business-intelligence tool the city will host and promote to support small-business growth. “I am very pleased to present Size Up FTL, which is a new business intelligent initiative designed to support small business growth and economic development in the city and this online tool will be available at no cost to the public,” Sainville said.
A prerecorded demonstration by J.R. Charles of Size Up walked commissioners through features including revenue benchmarking, workforce and salary estimates, local competition maps, supply-chain discovery, customer targeting and an advertising model. Charles used a hypothetical coffee-shop example in Fort Lauderdale to show how the tool compares local revenue and staffing levels and plots customer demographics down to the block level.
Commissioners asked about cost and sponsorship. Sainville said the city paid $12,488 up front and the annual subscription will be $9,488; she said there is no fee for public users and the city will absorb subscription costs. Mario Ubald, participating via Zoom, confirmed a sponsorship module exists that can display partner logos and links when appropriate: “we have within the tool a module that can support…sponsorship…you can actually add logos, text, links to any of your other partners,” he said.
Sainville said the city will host outreach through the public-affairs website and run technical-assistance workshops for interested businesses and community groups, and will promote the tool through social media and newsletter channels. There were no formal motions tied to the introduction; commissioners had no further questions and the meeting moved on to the stormwater presentation.
Why this matters: The tool centralizes market and demographic data that many small businesses lack, giving local owners data they can use for site selection, hiring and targeted outreach without a per-user fee.
What’s next: Staff will continue outreach and offer workshops for community organizations and business owners to demonstrate the tool.
