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Business Enhancement
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...
The New Federal Stimulus – what Does it Mean for Your Business?
Smart businesses have accessed governmental and nongovernmental resources to fit their needs during the pandemic. Those resources continue to change, and some dollars are specifically targeted to industry types that...
New Kansas Main Street Incentives.
The reformation of the Kansas Main Street program within the Kansas Department of Commerce promised to provide new technical and financial resources for Main Street communities and members. Everything was...
Spring Cleaning – Getting Ready for Different Types of Business.
We aren't exactly out of winter yet. We are just one week removed from a -32 degree wind chill, but warmer weather is becoming more frequent. With the weather change,...
What Is Going On With Minimum Wage?
Legislation under consideration is generating A LOT of questions Whenever legislation that impacts businesses is considered on the federal or state level, businesses have questions. Has the legislation passed? When...
New resources come online to support businesses repairing buildings, or evolving through the pandemic.
Emporia Main Street is always on the lookout for new funding opportunities to assist local businesses. There are three programs that we are going to highlight in this e-news.The Kansas...
New data on consumer and economic behavior projections
It's the question we are continually asked by businesses and consumers: "when will this all be over?". We have to consistently remind people that the prognostications about the end of...
Start Your Own Business Class Enrolling Now!
The first class for the Start Your Own Business session is next Tuesday, October 13th. We have a few class slots open for our limited group (only 12 spots), and...
Insight Into the Strategies and Other Economic Development Professionals are Using to Build Better Economies and Communities.
Most people that know me well understand that I expect to gain something actionable from meetings, retreats, and/or conferences. Meeting simply to meet/network/"get on the same page"/etc. isn't something that...
A New Tool to Help Local Businesses and the “Gig” Economy.
Emporia Main Street communicates with other similar programs far outside of our region on a fairly consistent basis. Our emphasis on finding "like" communities, or areas that were once like...
New Assistance for Local Businesses
The City of Emporia, KS has been awarded $132,000 of funding through the Kansas Department of Commerce’s Community Development Block Grant COVID-19 Small Business Grant Program (CDBG-CV). The City of...
Consumer Pandemic Trends
The mind of the consumer during a pandemic is difficult to track. Even outside of Covid, trying to guess the wants and needs of your customers can be a full...
Some Clarity for Your Customers: Accurate information posting can reduce frustration and increase sales.
The pandemic continues to change the hours and operational standards of several small businesses in the region. Customers are wondering: Can I walk into this business? When are they open...
How Has the Pandemic Impacted Your Brand?
There are wonderful people that work very hard to understand the world around them for the benefit of others. These people aren't simply watching TV, reading commentary, or listening to...
Radical Transparency: Your customers, staff, and the general public need to hear from you in a different way RIGHT NOW
We have many positive traits in the Midwest. The people here work hard, they are punctual, people believe in teamwork, and they typically value getting things done. One of the...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
