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Business Enhancement

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Diversifying Sales Outlets. Extending Your Sales Capabilities Beyond Your Four Walls.

If there is one strategy that Covid-19 has accelerated for businesses, it is the adoption of technology to extend sales outside the traditional business physical space. Restaurants are promoting curbside...
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Identifying new business pathways as the population deals with ongoing pandemic impacts

We do a lot of individual business consultations at Emporia Main Street. We prefer individual meetings for "deep dives" because we understand the unique nature of our member businesses. Recommendations...
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Curbside Assistance to Businesses

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, individuals have been advised to stay away from certain business types.  Restaurants, bars, retailers, and entertainment venues have been hit particularly hard by a sharp and...
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Interactive Mural Encourages Community to Engage in Downtown

Last week was a fluttering of activity in downtown Emporia! The sun was shining, the weather teased of spring, Trox Gallery and Gifts held their Grand Opening and several Emporians...
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THE FUTURE OF RETAIL

National trends and analysis help us project a pathway to success General technology, automated integration, and web based sales have impacted almost every industry. Retail isn't immune to changes in...
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How ’bout Those CHIEFS?!?!

What lessons can we apply to our local businesses when we compare them to the Super Bowl Champs? You might have heard that a local football team won the Super...
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Hitting the “Start” Button

Getting things started is an imperfect process, but it is the only way to get things done In the cold of late January, the energy and resourcefulness of entrepreneurs starts...

Valentines Day is a Month Away!

Your first shot to make some money in 2020 It seems like we all just survived the holiday season, but the calendar marches on! Valentines Day is coming up in...

2019 Year In Review!

A brief look back before we begin 2020! Emporia Main Street doesn't spend a lot of time looking backward in time. We've found that too much time looking behind you...
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Finish Strong During The Holidays

If you are in the world of retail or some service based businesses, you are scanning this article with glazed over eyes. You are probably a little exhausted with the...
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The Holiday Sell By Date

A series of upcoming retail time periods require different targeting The 4th Quarter is typically a critical time for most retail, and some service based businesses.  The whole concept of...
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Projecting Messages

The Internet is forever.  For those of us that grew up in the pre-commercial internet/social media age, communication was temporary.  A face to face conversation or phone call evaporated from...

The Land of O.Z.

Helping people invest in their community is one of the most important jobs in economic development.  We know that if people inside a community won't invest, people outside of a...

Property Opportunity

Location, Location, Location used to stand out as the major indicator of potential success for businesses and organizations.  While location is still very important, we have a better understanding of...

Your Daily Business Journal

Modern entrepreneurs can suffer from information overload.  Every media outlet has a plethora of data that they can present to businesses in the process of making informed advertising decisions.  The...

Being Relevant

Every business, organization, or non-profit should consistently ask themselves: "why am I absolutely necessary in the lives of my consumer?"  Necessity can mean something different depending on your stage of...

When Options Are Flying At You How Do You Decide?

When we communicate with entrepreneurs, we always ask "what weren't you adequately prepared for?", and the answer we typically get back is "the amount of decisions we have to make." ...

Incubation- the New(er) Eco Devo

A lot of us hear the constant discussion about how the world "should be", but most of us understand that rhetoric stands in stark comparison to how the world actually...

How Well Do You Know Your Customer?

The National Main Street Conference contained several different learning sessions for attendees. Each year, Emporia Main Street distills the sessions attended by our members and relays the information attained to...

New Retail Trends

During the National Main Street Conference, attendees are often exposed to "future trends" that allow us to better prepare businesses to take advantage of emerging opportunities and to avoid emerging...

HOW TO: Introducing Entrepreneurship

The Main Street staff works with a lot of entrepreneurs. Our close contact with start up and locally owned ventures stems from the facts that most small businesses look to...

Entrepreneurship through Disruption

Every few years a new buzzword emerges within entrepreneurship. The current iteration of fashionable language is "disruption". Disruptive entrepreneurship takes on established industries and economic models and disrupts the status...

External Communication

A couple of editions ago, the e-news focused on internal customer communications. Multiple businesses/organizations reached out with positive comments and additional communications questions, one of those being the consumption of...

Customer Communication

I like attending conferences that are outside of my direct field of expertise. Gathering information from a different perspective encourages innovation. Main Street has always been an entrepreneurial or organic...

Year in Review 2017

Each year we take one e-news and dedicate it towards looking back over the previous year. We don't want to linger in the past, but we do want to recognize...

Plan Now for a Happy New Year! Getting Ready for Retail the Day After Christmas!

The countdown is almost done, and Christmas is almost here!  When Christmas lands on a Monday the consumer dynamics can get a little weird.  The biggest shopping day of the...

Social Media 2.0

Social Media is a good way for local businesses to supplement traditional marketing efforts and conduct business outreach in a more conversational tone.  Outside of the information presented within the...

Supporting Economic Growth

The Emporia City Commission unanimously approved placement of a Property Tax Relief and Economic Development question on the November 7th Ballot.   The wording of the ballot issue is as...

Cyber Security

Christmas is fast approaching, but there are some folks out there that definitely deserve some coal in their stockings this year.  Hackers are out in force trying to breach security, encourage businesses...

What does Your Storefront Say About Your Business?

1.  Walk around the envelope of your building. The whole building...  Front, back, (if you are on a corner or adjacent to a breezeway) side and look at your building from...

Pricing enticement strategies to drive traffic (while preserving profit).

Retailers are forced to compete for consumer dollars.  With the ascension of on-line sales and other direct to consumer portals, customer competition is more intense than ever.  In response, many business...

The Art of the Deal

Retailers are forced to compete for consumer dollars. With the ascension of on-line sales and other direct to consumer portals, customer competition is more intense than ever. In response, many...

The Homegrown Initiative

Emporia Main Street (EMS) is an economic and community development philosophy that operates within the City of Emporia and Lyon County. Using an effective four point approach, adopted from the...

4th Quarter Checkup

It's that magical time of year!  Weather starts cooling down, people start thinking about holidays and businesses start promoting themselves to seasonal shoppers.  As you enter the 4th Quarter (October,...

Holiday Security Tips for Small Business Owners

The prime holiday push is upon us, and all the extra traffic is great for business.  Busy stores produce great sales opportunities, but they are also prime targets for those...

Holiday Security

The prime holiday push is upon us, and all the extra traffic is great for business.  Busy stores produce great sales opportunities, but they are also prime targets for those...

The Next Step

Several people ask "when are you moving" on a weekly basis. Rather than a simple "Did you know" question at the bottom of the newsletter, we thought we would take...

Solvency & the Lorax

Occasionally, I'll throw pictures of a little blonde three year old (going on four- going on twenty-six) into the e-newsletter. That little spit-fire is my daughter, Brynn. She is at...

Brand Based Businesses

Discussions with new entrepreneurs reflect the overwhelming number of decisions they must make as their business grows.  Businesses that have been open a few years have staff that often talk...

Summer is Here! What can this mean for your business?

For many of us Summer time brings a sense of a time to relax, kids at home, endless tubes of sunscreen, road trips, crunchy hair from too much pool time,...

Back to School!

The end of summer vacation is in sight, and people are preparing for the start of another school year.  Teachers and administrators are working hard preparing facilities and lesson plans....

A New Development Downtown

Emporia Downtown Redevelopment Group, LLC announced a major new addition to downtown Emporia.  The Roosevelt Plaza & Lofts & Legacy Lofts, a new mixed use development containing forty-seven residential units...

Summer is Here!

For many of us Summer time brings a sense of a time to relax, kids at home, endless tubes of sunscreen, road trips, crunchy hair from too much pool time,...

How to DK

Big events are now a "thing" in Emporia.  We have a series of international events that draw thousands of people into the community, but we need your help to keep...

Building a Better Bullpen

Entrepreneurs are people that spot an opportunity and find a way to take advantage of it. They are problem solvers.  Entrepreneurs are the "doers" of a community.  Beyond the concepts...

Planning your Human Resource Assets

Small business owners often start with only one or two employees, and then they grow their businesses.  Because of their humble beginnings, some entrepreneurs have a difficult time with human...

Turning Events into Marketing Opportunities

How can it be that March already? Although January and February are historically slower months for Emporia Main Street (we are still waiting to see that slow time), the spring and...

Merchandising your Brand

The best businesses inspire emotions that go beyond a simple "this is where I buy some of my products or services."  People feel a connection to great businesses, organizations and...

Target your Involvement

As we roll out of the first month of the year, many of us on a personal or business level have made a New Year's resolution to make a social...

Planning your Intro

Most businesses get hectic during the Christmas season.  Of course retailers are busy, but restaurants see an uptick and many service businesses also see increased traffic as people are assessing...

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