“If you don’t have anything else to do, dress up like a hotdog.”

Downtown districts hold events for a variety of reasons:  to raise the identity and up the energy of a district, to earn money for the  downtown organization and to boost retail sales in district stores.  All are good reasons, and the events promote the role of the district as the central convening point in a community.

With that being said, getting everyone on the same page to establish event goals and maximize the collective and individual opportunities is more than a notion.  And, it is just the point of one of the new workshops offered by the Small Town and Merchant Program (STAMP) of the Virginia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network.

Virginia Main Street (VMS) has partnered with the Network over the past two years to offer merchant trainings to designated communities on several topics.  The district-wide trainings for merchants and downtown volunteers combine a community workshop with one-on-one merchant consultations with retail expert Marc Willson.

Wilson recently spoke to a crowd of 50 gathered at the VMS Summer Toolkit to give an overview of the new slate of workshops, including TEAM Eventacular: Town, Events and Merchants Partnering for Profits.  There are many ways merchants can take advantage of events to build their customer base and raise awareness of their businesses, including the strategy of this blog post’s title.

Other titles in the series include the following:

• Staying Relevant to a Changed Customer
• Window Signs and Visual Displays: Stewards of Your Brand
• Restaurateurs – The Experience is Twice as Important as the Food
• From Bah Humbug to Booming Holiday Sales

For more information on the program, download the brochure.  If you are interested in hosting a training in your Designated Virginia Main Street Community, contact Jeff Sadler.

Guest Blogger: Jennifer Heyns on Warrenton’s Emerging Latitudes

When people shop locally, they know they are helping to support their community and the shop owners who live there. At Warrenton’s Latitudes Fair Trade, shoppers know they are supporting not only a local business, but also artisans from developing countries around the world.

Latitudes buys handcrafted items from overseas either directly or through a wholesale distributer, ensuring that much of the profit reaches the hands of the original creator. Each item it sells is unique, with deep cultural ties to its country of origin. It not only sells jewelry, scarves, and bags, but also practical household items such as baskets, vases, and table linens.

Latitudes owner Lee Owsley is proud to support artists in less-fortunate countries. Her business allows both buyers and sellers to feel good, she says, because “instead of improving their lives and the lives of their children via handouts or illegal means, these producers are able to live with the self-respect of knowing they are engaged in an honest and fulfilling enterprise.” She believes each item sold represents an artist digging himself out of poverty with dignity.

Latitudes ties the community of Warrenton with communities from around the world—economically and culturally. In Warrenton, it represents the community’s own entrepreneurial spirit. Owsley is a fulltime teacher, who started her business with a temporary store set up for the holiday season. She partnered with a full-time artist in sharing the space. “It really helped me to feel that I wasn’t alone in this,” said Owsley, who advises anyone hesitant about opening a shop to find others who can help with costs, labor and courage.

For more information about the store and the artisans it helps to support, please visit their Web site at www.latitudesfairtrade.com.

Main Street Merchant Profile: Pufferbellies

In a new series of blog entries, we’re highlighting Main Street merchants — the entrepreneurs who create jobs and care for historic structures in our traditional commercial districts. To share the successes of one of your merchants, contact Doug Jackson.

Pufferbellies, a shop specializing in top-notch service to the next generation of Main Street customers, offers a well curated selection of toys and books for children.

Occupying two store fronts on West Johnson Street in Staunton’s Wharf district, Pufferbellies makes it clear from the street what you’re going to find inside, both in the products offered and the attention to detail in merchandising.

In 2008, store owners Susan and Erin Blanton restored 15 West Johnson street,  one of the few buildings in downtown Staunton with original street-level doors, window frames, moldings and trim. Since its construction in the early 1900s, it’s gone largely unchanged, but it’s probably never been this much fun.

What Pufferbellies does especially well is engage the community–both online (1,500 people like their facebook page) and face-to-face, with great customer service and welcoming special events (free Wednesday Crafternoon activities anyone?).  At Pufferbellies, staff members know the children by name and they’ve got tips for just the right gift or party game. It’s enough to make you want to be a kid again, or at least play like one.

For some customer service and marketing tips from the Pufferbellies team, such as why they don’t have to compete with Target,  read this short  Toy Directory Online article.

Be a Culpeper Local

Culpeper, Virginia just received some good press after it unleashed its new shop local campaign, Be a Culpeper Local.  The campaign combines educating the nearly 50,000 Culpeper County residents on the value of buying locally with a website, beaculpeperlocal.com that directs visitors to local shopping and dining options, specials, and a way to track how much of your state sales tax is being returned to local Culpeper general funds and school coffers.

This fiscal year, 2010–11, the County general fund expects to receive $4.5 million (part of which is allocated to the Town), and the school expects to receive $6.4 million. All these millions are from us spending our dollars in Culpeper County!

It may not need saying, but this same math works for every community in Virginia, from Abingdon to Winchester and everyone in between.  This is but one of many ways to  jumpstart a shop local campaign.  If you need more reasons to value shopping local, you can visit this page.

For more information on shop local campaigns and the value of shopping local, peruse our training archives page, visit the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies website or get in contact with the Virginia Main Street staff.

Virginia Tourism is way ahead of the pack…again.

One of Virginia Main Street’s most prized relationships is the one we have with Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC).  We often plan our strategies to complement theirs and they often ask us what’s going on downtown that they can use to better market Virginia.  They believe in Virginia’s historic commercial districts as tourist attractions to the point that they designed a special category of their Passionality quiz called Small Town Hound.

Many of the really exciting innovations at VTC have been ways to get your information out to travellers, whether they be from out of state or just down the street.  The Richmond Times Dispatch published an article touting VTC’s new iPhone app.  The application allows small businesses to directly reach travellers in a number of ways by self posting information about their businesses in a way that the app users can find them while they are travelling.

Features of the Virginia is for Lovers app include:

• a “near me” feature which finds all attractions within a 15-mile radius;

• directions and mapping for every listing;

• direct access to making reservations via phone or website;

• customer reviews of restaurants and lodging properties; and

• pet-friendly attractions listed by locality

The Virginia.org website has many tools to help local businesses and organizations promote their events and products.  You can go here to add your events now or you can contact a VTC representitive here.

Designing a Marketplace

Is your economic restructuring committee effective?  Challenges like recruiting businesses and interpreting expensive and technical market studies discourage eager volunteers. There’s no immediate result after hours of meetings and planning.  Pressure to see results from business owners, local government and the community compounds the frustration. It’s easy for this committee, in particular, to go inactive.

Main Street organizations all over America have faced this challenge, and many are beating it–by creating compelling and specific visions for their downtown marketplace.  To illustrate the best strategies Todd Barman, Program Officer for the National Trust Main Street Center (NTMSC), features Altavista, a Virginia Main Street designated community, in a recent issue of Main Street Now. 

Barman says “It will take a concrete and compelling vision of a fully functioning future marketplace to attract the entrepreneurs and investors who will eventually realize [their] vision.”   What works for Main Street communities is similar to the strategy of successful commercial developers that are good at communicating their development vision using verbal descriptions, architectural renderings, and diagrams/schematics.  Along with this are specific steps for filling vacancies in historic commercial districts.

“The NTMSC is working to empower Main Street programs to use similar tools to attain similar results.”

Check out the details in the Main Street at Work column of the July/August 2010 issue of Main Street Now, The Journal of The National Trust Main Street Center.

Pop-up shops a temporary solution to the empty storefront

With commercial real estate continuing to reel from the economic downturn, some major brands are looking at temporary leases in heavy volume areas.  Empty storefronts are not good for anyone, and leases in desireable areas have become much more flexible.

These “pop-up” stores are potential strategies for fledging businesses trying out a concept, artists promoting their work, and districts working to maintain a critical energy level. And a well-executed, intentionally temporary use sends a very different message than a space that unintentionally turns over after a 90-day stint by a poorly planned business.

While a major car company may not be looking at your district to establish a pop-up store as Ford did in Portland last month to promote the new Fiesta, their model might spark local thinking about temporary uses for your vacant spaces.  The space Ford is in had been empty for two years.

With the holiday shopping season approaching, now might be a great time to encourage a creative use for a critical vacancy in your district.  If the property owner is willing, work with him or her and a brainstorming team to identify potential pop-ups that would complement existing businesses. 

Here are some quick thoughts: a seasonal Halloween or holiday store in a vacant space could bring new shoppers into the district.  Perhaps a successful charity such as goodwill would be interested in setting one up, or maybe a local club already has a holiday sales event that could use a temporary space. A successful home-based business might be a good candidate for a pop-up, or the local arts or craft guild might want to try one.  

If you have a local theater group (or maybe even the high school theater club), you might enlist their set design skills in creating an entertaining and attractive space.  Use your revitalization network to help promote the temporary store. And remember, the more people you involve in the effort, the more people will support it during its run.

Interested in reading more?  Try Inc. Magazine’s recent article, “How to Open a Pop-up Store.”

The unexpected entrepreneur

If you were asked to describe an entrepreneur, what words would you use?  Maybe terms like “bright, energetic, or magnetic.”  This 2004 article in the aptly named magazine Entrepreneur, gives a whole host of other terms, not all of them complimentary. 

Two descriptions of an entrepreneur that most people would not use are “ex-felon,” and “non-English speaking.”  However, it may just be these often overlooked sectors of your community could be an integral piece of your community’s economic restructuring.  In the classic Republic, Plato said, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”  If this is true, then those least able to obtain traditional employment should be those with the most entrepreneurial spirit.

Upholsterer and entrepreneur Troy Graves. Photo by Tara Bozick, Danville News.

Take Troy Graves.  This Danville resident spent a few years in prison, where he apprenticed as an upholsterer, eventually redoing a chair for the Governor’s office.  When he completed his incarceration, he had trouble finding steady work but was determined not to go back to his former ways.  With the help of a partnership with Virginia Enterprise Initiative, New Visions New Ventures and the Small Business Development Center, Troy was able to get business skills training, write a business plan, and obtain a microloan that allowed him to set up shop.   When this newspaper article hit the street, his phone rang off the hook and he has business lined up for the foreseeable future.  Troy is still building his credit, and hopes to own his building one day soon. 

And consider this positive story from National Public Radio from a place where positive stories have been few and far between.  It seems the one part of Detroit that is flourishing is the predominantly Latino neighborhood known as “Mexican Town.”  Many less developed economies have a strong entrepreneurial tradition; again, harkening back to Plato’s words about necessity.  The most entrepreneurial members of these societies often find a way to come to the United States and bring that spirit with them. 

Make sure you consider all aspects of your local business environment when planning your community’s future.  You just might find success in the most unexpected places.

Small Town and Merchant Program brings relevant resources to downtown merchants

Virginia Main Street continues the partnership with Virginia Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), bringing the Small Town & Merchant Program to traditional commercial districts.

In the workshop, “Staying Relevant to a Changed Customer,” retail expert Marc Willson positions the consumer in the recovering economy and provides real resources and information to help merchants retain existing customers and capture new ones.  He then provides one-on-one retail and restaurant check-ups, tailoring strategies for specific businesses.

Marc Willson brings  35 years of experienceto participating communities.  In 1975, Marc started his retail career as co-owner of the largest distributor of Earth Shoes in the U.S.  Since then he has held executive positions with retailers such as Britches of Georgetowne, Crown Books, Circuit City, The Bicycle Exchange, Ecampus.com and Storetrax, Inc.  Most recently, he traveled to Dallas, Texas to open the world’s first energy efficiency store for Current Energy, LLC, a company funded by Ross Perot, Jr. Marc joined the SBDC in 2009 as a Retail Industry Consultant.

For more information on the program, designated Main Street communities should contact Virginia Main Street.  Other communities should work through the local SBDC.

Quality v. quantity

Last Thursday, at the Virginia Main Street 25th Anniversary Milestone Achievement Awards, keynote speaker Chuck D’Aprix spoke about the importance of making your downtown attractive to entrepreneurs.  One way to do this is to focus on the quality of the experience rather than the quantity of products you sell.

In short, it is difficult to compete with big box store prices and the accompanying scale that makes those small margins possible.  So why not try delving into high quality products that carry a much higher margin and offer a much richer experience? 

If you focus on giving your downtown customers a quality, authentic and unique experience, you will become an attraction for those with quality in mind who don’t mind paying a little (or a lot) extra for that quality.  To quote an article on Kansas’ Prairie Marshes in Legacy Magazine,

Happy and satisfied visitors stay longer, return often, and “spread the word” both about the joys of visiting our region and the importance and significance of the resources found here. This has raised the visibility of the tourism industry at the local, state, and national levels.

From $10,000 boots to stagecoaches to ballgloves to guitars, watch this short slideshow on successful “craftpreneurs.”  And yes, I just made up that word.

Bob Mills, owner of Angle Hardware in Rocky Mount, VA, once told me that Wal-Mart didn’t bother him.  Their product knowledge and quality was poor.  Lowe’s has a much wider selection and is more specialized than Wal-Mart, but do you think you can get someone at Lowe’s to tell you whether a machine screw or a hex bolt will hold better?  Angle Hardware is the real deal.  You don’t wander for hours past spa tubs to find your drill bits.  You walk in and you get greeted by name and with a handshake and a sincere, “What can I help you with?”  If you need one screw, you get one screw, not a box of 25. 

Quality customer service is a rare commodity; but one you can find readily on Virginia’s Main Streets.