Kentucky Business One Stop web portal goes live

Bryan Sunderland, vice president of public affairs for the Kentucky Chamber, says Kentucky businesses will benefit greatly from the Business One Stop web portal.

This week the Kentucky Business One Stop web portal, an electronic way for business to start and operate in a more efficient way, was launched. The website, onestop.ky.gov, is an interactive web portal designed to provide faster, more reliable and cost-effective state government services to businesses.

During a press conference in Bowling Green, Kentucky Chamber Vice President of Public Affairs, Bryan Sunderland, joined Gov. Steve Beshear, Secretary of State Elaine Walker and Sen. David Givens for the bipartisan announcement of the web portal. Also joining the press conference was Douglas Rohrer, executive director of the central region Innovation and Commercialization Center.

“We are excited that companies will now have a single point of entry into state government for business registration, tax issues, economic development programs and much more. I want to thank Senator Givens, Secretary Walker and Gov. Beshear for working together to make this happen,” said Sunderland during the press conference.   

To ensure the needs of the business community were met during the development of the new web portal, representatives from the Kentucky Chamber’s Small Business Committee reviewed drafts during focus group meetings hosted at the Chamber. Chamber representatives on the focus group – Ron Sanders of People Plus from Madisonville, Sandy Canon of Community Ventures from Lexington and Scott Green of Sonitrol from Lexington – were joined by representatives from the Kentucky Retail Federation, Kentucky Association of Manufacturing and the National Federation of Independent Business. Prior to this update, the website served as little more than a business registration page. It was originally developed by Secretary of State John Y. Brown III and improved by Secretary of State Trey Grayson.

During the press conference, Beshear noted that the site will be particularly helpful for those starting small businesses, which represent some 90 percent of the businesses in the state and create many of our new jobs.

The new vision for the site was established by Senate Bill 8, sponsored by Senator Givens and passed unanimously by the 2011 General Assembly to create a more comprehensive program like those in Michigan and Virginia. The site is meant to provide greater connectivity across state agencies and allow businesses to interact with several state agencies from a single point of contact. The system will streamline how businesses interact with the state by providing a secure, 24/7 central location for accessing necessary applications, information and important updates.

“Our organization has always been supportive of efforts by state government to improve communication between state agencies and the business community. That is why we supported Senate Bill 8 and have worked with the Beshear administration to implement the Kentucky Business One Stop Portal. Kentucky businesses will benefit greatly from this website and the new resources available to them,” said Dave Adkisson, president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber.