Blog
Business Enhancement
Making Spirits Bright! Creating a Fun & Festive Holiday Atmosphere for Your BusinessMaking Spirits Bright!
The holiday season is here, and it's the perfect opportunity for small businesses in Emporia to create a magical atmosphere that delights customers and energizes employees. With a little creativity,...
The Reasons for Shopping Local (and locally owned). A Healthy Community Starts with Smart Consumer Decisions.
Emporia Main Street supports local shopping all year long. Through events, marketing assistance, access to data, gift certificate programs, and a variety of other initiatives we encourage local citizens to...
Local SEO Optimization for Small Businesses. Getting noticed online is a key to driving in-store traffic.
In today's digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for small businesses, especially in local communities like Emporia, Kansas. Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool...
An Energy Dollar Saved is an Energy Dollar Earned! Understanding efficiency options for your business.
Kansas businesses spend a higher percentage of their gross income on utilities than most of the nation. That fact isn't a knock on our utility companies, it is a function...
The 2024 Start Your Own Business Class
We are getting ready to gear up for the eighteenth year of the Start Your Own Business Class! The class starts each October, and features nine class segments designed to...
Grant Opportunities – Financing Available for Special Projects
Grants are relatively rare and require a well thought out plan, the ability to execute, matching funding, and adherence to grant parameters. Dollars invested through grant platforms are generally designed...
The Placemaking to the 10th Power. New insights in making spaces, businesses, and communities great places for consumers and citizens.
One of the most complex functions of Main Street programs and economic/community development groups is that of "Placemaker". Great places that are businesses, individual public spaces, or areas (like a...
Business & Organizational Evolution- How Are You Changing to Meet Different Needs?
It's interesting how seemingly unrelated fields can help us improve entrepreneurship. Small businesses are often cited as part of an "ecosystem" by modern business experts, and the reference to a...
Consumer Surveys: Determining your business strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of your customersConsumer Surveys:
Obtaining quality customer feedback can be difficult for businesses. Some customers will be less than honest in face to face feedback with businesses because they don't want to hurt someone's...
Summer Reset: Staff Training Focus for the Summer Months
The Emporia calendar is a little weird this year. We pushed through to May, and then saw a huge Cinco de Mayo/Dynamic Discs Open/La Grind event, followed by graduations, the...
New Incentives to Aid in Building Development
New incentives to aid in redevelopment, and strategies to "right size" buildings Development opportunities are important to the future of the community. Ensuring that existing buildings are utilized can assist...
Spring Flowers: A Touch of Color Can Catch the Customer’s Eye!
Customer attraction is complex in a lot of ways. Identifying a target market and finding effective strategies to reach consumers predisposed to your product or service is tough. However, some...
Vacancy Issues- What Causes Them and What Can We Do About It.
Across the nation we have an issue that impacts our communities: vacancies. Vacant homes, vacant commercial properties, vacant sections of buildings, and areas that aren't utilized in our communities. Vacancies...
Zig When They Zag. As big companies push automated customer experience, small businesses must embrace the personal touch
Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) were the dominant business stories in 2023. AI will develop an entirely upgraded skill set this year (and for the next several years), and large...
Show of Hands! The third year of the business pitch event will feature a new location, new concepts, and some new support elements!
Four years ago, Emporia Main Street had an opportunity to participate in a study by the Brookings Institute. The study focused on the practices of three Main Street programs in...
So WHO are we Marketing to? A new tool to drill down on your exact consumer mix through Emporia Main Street.
We are always looking for new ways to add value to local businesses and give them a competitive edge. Large corporations have extensive marketing departments that study every element of...
Keep things going during the last month of the year!
December is upon us, and it is a critical month for many businesses. Keeping your attitude positive and your energy level up is important for customer interactions and your sanity....
Small Business Saturday!!!!
At Emporia Main Street, we believe small businesses are a big deal. Supporting our local entrepreneurs isn't just something we say, it's something that we do through some very clear...
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. Trend capturing to support traffic and sales.
We are getting ready to enter the holiday home stretch. Emporia quickly transitions from Veterans Day to the Christmas Season, and the decor, mind set, and retail/service focus needs to...
Projecting Positivity: Creating a positive and productive work environment takes some culture effort.
The sun is setting a little sooner each day. The weather is getting cooler and the 4th quarter brings some additional stress for both business owners and staff. That type...
Rural Population Trends: Drivers for population and economics within rural communities
I don't think it's a secret that there are differences in community types throughout the nation. Huge cities, metropolitan areas, rural cities, small towns, and country living all have their...
4th Qt Activities – Finish the Year Strong!
The last three months of the calendar are upon us, and this is the time where businesses need to focus on traffic, exposure, and sales to finish the year strong....
Business Diversity: Kansas Commerce Registry Programs Open Opportunities to Women, Minority, & Veteran Owned Businesses
In competitive marketplaces, entrepreneurs need to look for an edge. Standing out in a field of similar businesses can be difficult, but there are programs that can help women, minority,...
Show of Hands Year 2 – A successful entrepreneurial pitch activity is back!
Three years ago, Emporia Main Street had an opportunity to participate in a study by the Brookings Institute. The study focused on the practices of three Main Street programs in...
Fab Lab Update
The Fabrication Lab at Emporia Main Street came online in April of last year, and it has been a wild ride taking the concept to fruition. In the past eight...
Business Strategy Recalibration
We are in the heart of the holiday rush, and I know you don't need another thing to do, but what if I told you some simple notes during this...
Customer Service: It’s Kinda A BIG Deal!
Some reminders as we approach peak holiday shopping season. The defining characteristic for small businesses is often service. I know that may seem unfair as large retail operations force self...
National Emerging Business Trends
Growing opportunities for entrepreneurs. he National Main Street Center collects data from a variety of sources to highlight growth opportunities for Main Street businesses. National Program Officer, Matt Wagner, provided some...
Different Traffic, Different Trends
Measuring modes of transport for consumer behavior can enhance business outreach! Traffic counts are drivers that set a majority of development decisions for many lifestyle businesses over the 1980s and...
Navigating the Metaverse
Over the past two decades Facebook has risen to the top of its game acquiring sister applications like Instagram and WhatsApp and connecting with over 3.5 billion people globally -...
Fall Forward -Approaches for Businesses to Adjust to the Change of Season.
I know that fall doesn't officially arrive until September 22nd, but now is the time to shift your business thinking from summer to autumn. The change in consumer behavior is noticeable...
Guidelines for “R & D” (ripoff & duplicate)
Looking for business ideas in other places is a good idea, if you know where to look! Most entrepreneurs and organizations can find the ideation and decision making process overwhelming. Creativity...
Vacancy Development
Identifying our actual supply can help satisfy regional demand. Emporia Main Street worked with Simon Stewart, an Emporia State University analytics intern to develop a research project. The proposed project...
What Do Local Consumers Want?
Emporia reaches out to the general public concerning consumer preferences/wants/needs on a regular basis. Over the past two years, we have restricted those "asks" to obtain feedback on pandemic response...
Show of Hands: The Entrepreneurial Funding Opportunity for Every Business Startup or Significant Expansion in Lyon County
A couple of years ago, Emporia Main Street had an opportunity to participate in a study by the Brookings Institute. The study focused on the practices of three Main Street...
The Value of Mentorship
Mentorships are one of the oldest and most successful forms of personal and organizational development. Finding individuals that can be open and honest with you about your ideas, goals, and...
Consumer Data Collection – Some information from your customers can make a huge difference in your upcoming marketing efforts.
Retailers, restaurants, service businesses and organizations often spend a great deal of time trying to climb inside the minds of their customers. Effectively understanding how your customers think and what...
A Soft Spoken Community Win: The story of one local family that brought a building back from the brink of demolition to expand a unique local business.
Emporia is the type of community that constantly faces opportunities and threats. Individuals who go above and beyond the call often make the difference in the general direction of the...
Heal Grants for Downtown Buildings – A New State Program Can Help Specific Types of Building Rehabilitations
The Historic Economic Asset Lifeline (HEAL) grant was recently announced by the Kansas Department of Commerce. This program was developed "for the revitalization of underutilized, vacant, or dilapidated downtown buildings through the...
Experts, City Officials, Main Street Managers, and Developers from around the state talk through a type of housing that works for communities.
Communities throughout the United States are struggling with housing. Growing communities struggle to acquire land and pay for infrastructure associated with housing developments with local tax dollars. Communities with static...
Local Business to Offer Staffing Support
Emporia, KS – When the Pandemic hit, Misty Gardner (RN) found herself facing a professional and personal dilemma. Like others in her field, medical professionals were faced with grueling schedules and...
Preparing for Back to School Opportunities.
Summer is racing by and back to school is right around the corner, so it's not to soon to start planning for the school year. I know you are probably...
New Job Board for Gigs, Part-Time, Full-Time, and Freelancers!
Across multiple industries, organizational types, and work place sizes businesses, governmental entities, and nonprofits are struggling to fill positions. After some thoughtful consideration by the Emporia Main Street Board of...
Preparing for UNBOUND
We will see a huge influx of gravel riders into Emporia next week for the Unbound Cycling Event. While some travel restrictions will limit a bit of participation, we will...
What is next in the realm of Community and Economic Development?
During the National Main Street Conference, we had the opportunity to listen to a variety of different speakers and researchers tracking changes in community and economic development cultures. Understanding those...
What is the Cost of a Vacant Building?
"It's not hurting anything.""I can do whatever I want with whatever I own.""I inherited it, and I'm really not in a hurry to let it go.""It's got sentimental value.""For the...
Business Life Cycles: Where is your business at, and what is your strategy to grow?
Businesses have different lifecycles, and the strategies to support businesses can vary by business type, owner acumen, and lifecycle tools. It is important for entrepreneurs to know what lifecycle stage...
New business trends emerge from the pandemic. What should you keep moving forward?
One of the advantages of Emporia Main Street's affiliation with Kansas Main Street and the National Main Street organization is training. We consistently receive access to high quality data that...
