In December 2020, the County partnered with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to promote and market the FASTER economic relief program. As part of that agreement, the BBB maintained and operated the El Paso Business Strong and Buy El Paso websites (and social media accounts), and also built a dashboard that has allowed FASTER administrators to upload their data so that they could coordinate between programs. The original expiration date for this agreement was March 31, 2021.
Commissioners Court on April 5, 2021 approved a First Amendment to continue the three most crucial parts of this agreement on a month-to-month basis through the end of the current fiscal year: the two websites (EPBusinessStrong.org and BuyEP.org) and the dashboard where FASTER administrators continue to coordinate. The Court's approval including funding in the amount of $64,872.
The department coordinated with the City of El Paso's Economic Development Department to consider cost-sharing for possible continuation of these services with the BBB. The City of El Paso approved funding of these services in the amount of $116,500.
County Commissioners Court approved in August 2021 a second amendment that extended and augmented current services for the two websites that promote El Paso County businesses as they continue to recover from the pandemic's impact on their operations. These services cost the County $116,500.
FASTER's EPBusinessStrong website has gained additional features including SizeUp, a tool for businesses which provides any user industry-specific and hyperlocal information using Big Data analysis. The research is individually customized for each company. By using the website service local businesses are able to rank their business performance compared to industry competitors. They also can discover potential customers, suppliers, and better understand their competitive landscape. The SizeUp service is free to users and its costs have been folded into the marketing effort.