Registration data highlights ND’s economic growth

Monthly registrations triple in 5 years

BY KRIS BEVILL

If you ’ ve registered a business in North Dakota anytime in the past few years, chances are good you ’ ve had a lengthy wait in line Since 2011, the number of business registrations filed each month with the North Dakota Secretar y of State’s office has often been double, sometimes triple, the number historically processed by the state, a telling sign of the Roughrider State’s recent run-up in economic activity and sustained high level of interest from businesses. The “ new normal” rate of registration activity is about 130 percent greater than it was just a few short years ago, according to the data, and it shows no real signs of slowing down Secretary of State Al Jaeger describes the last few years as “ a challenging time” for his office, mostly because the timing of the rush in the middle of a legislative biennium forced the office to accommodate an unheard-of increase in workloads with no option to add staff

“My first reaction is to say it’s been challenging,” he says. “Activity is very high with the registrations that are coming in, [but] my staff is very dedicated and conscientious and doing the best they can ”

About 30 full-time staff members fill the demands of the secretary of state’s office, assisted by half-dozen part-time workers. The state approved staff additions during the most recent legislative session, so there are more hands on deck now than in previous years enough that the office has outgrown its space in the Capitol Building and will likely request an expansion during the next biennium. But Jaeger notes that the training process takes time for new hires when they are handling sensitive matters such as business registrations, so they are still somewhat short-staffed and taking longer to fill requests than they’d like

The current timeline for approval of new filings is about four weeks, which, while double the historical two-week turnaround time, is a significant improvement over the six-week timeline experienced in 2012 at what was arguably the high-mark of the state’s recent economic boom In May 2012, approximately 1,850 new business filings were received by the office 400 more than were filed the month prior and triple the amount filed in May 2010

It was during that time that the workload became so great that Jaeger made the somewhat controversial decision to close the office to cus- tomers for three hours every day so that staff members could dedicate their attention to processing their workloads “While it may seem contradictory, it was done to increase customer service and increase staff productivity by allowing them to have uninterrupted time to work on files,” he says “And, it worked well While I received some criticism, it proved to be a wise decision for which I received confirmation and understanding from many people ”

The office resumed normal business hours in September 2012 although it has continued to wage an uphill battle to keep up with registration filings. The office now typically receives more than 1,000 registrations each month.

For businesses filing registrations with the office, Jaeger offers three suggestions to aid the process: Ensure paperwork is in order, plan ahead and be patient

“We have full-time people putting in overtime and everybody’s really working to provide the service they need,” he says. “Unfortunately, we ’ re in situations where a lot of people want it yesterday, and we can’t provide that ” PB

Kris Bevill Editor, Prairie Business 701-306-8561, kbevill@prairiebizmag.com