Blog
Home / Blog / Business Enhancement /
Business Enhancement
December: A Survival Guide
Thursday is December 1st-can you believe it? This month is historically one of the (if not the biggest) retail and dinning out months of the year! As shoppers gear up...
10 Tips for Holiday Shopping Success
For many businesses, holidays are the make-or-break season, but this crucial time of year can easily sneak up on you. It's time to get ready now, before you get overwhelmed...
Everyone wants to know how to best reach our youth…
The old model of working with youth was based on segmentation. A more established group of individuals would tell younger folks what to do, and as they earned their stripes,...
Empowering Your Employees
In the fourth quarter, most businesses find themselves in a flurry of activity with promotions, events, and seasonal help. In previous articles we have discussed the importance of finding a balance between work and...
Balancing Act
Entrepreneurs are people. Although business people sometimes seem like they can do it all, the extra time spent at a successful business can strain time normally made available for family...
Taking Advantage of Connecting with Customers
As a small business owner, there are several ways to market to your existing and potential customer base. Conventional ways can be found through radio and on air promotions and...
Don’t Let Them Steal Your Focus
We occasionally get requests for articles on specific topics, and this week's article fulfills one such request. As downtowns grow their business base and popularity, they often will experience "growing pains". Increases in foot traffic, parking...
Interviewing: You Need to Be Prepared Too
Well first things first. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Jess Buchholz and I am the "new" Community Development Director at Emporia Main Street. My...
A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned
Help is available to make homes more energy efficient for low-income families in Lyon County* through the ECKAN Weatherization Program. This help is provided at no cost to those who...
Thanks For Making Us Number One
A little preface to the press release we sent out in conjunction with the award announcement: The Top 10 Best Main Streets Award nominees were chosen by a panel of...
Four Point Refresh
Those of you that are familiar with the Main Street concept understand that we have a four point strategic approach. The four points are: Organization- Capacity Building, volunteer recruitment,...
Creating Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
For those of you that haven't attended a summit style meeting, there are speakers and panels present, but there are also a series of break out sessions where attendees essentially...
A Better Community Fabric
Getting a community to work together to accomplish something tangible isn't easy. Sure, people can sit around a table and talk, but when it comes to actually doing something... Well,...
Independent Success
Independent businesses are obviously a huge part of the fabric of our community in Emporia. For years, stagnation and low occupancy rates crippled the downtown area, but as focus has...
The Response to Difficult Customers
As executive director of Main Street, I have been responsible for the majority of these newsletters and the articles contained in them for about seven years now. Most of these...
Utilizing Facebook Ads
Advertising today looks much different than it did even five years ago. Online advertising reaches more people more quickly than traditional advertising and usually costs less. Its no wonder business...
Changing the Way We Think Creates Lasting Solutions
The Emporia Main Street office receives calls, emails and social media outreach each week from communities seeking advice or assistance. When they talk to us about a specific project or...
Why Shop Small?
Among all of the "shop local", "small business Saturday", "shop small" and other directive advertisements over the last few weeks, something was missing.. That something was the "why" behind those...
A Tax Break Opportunity
Thriving communities develop unique ways to enhance the ability of local entrepreneurs to start up and expand. Local businesses simply do more business locally. They hire local accountants, utilize local...
Holiday Retail 101
Because fourth quarter sales help push retailers into the black (profitability), the day after Thanksgiving is referred to as "black Friday". But, many retailers and restaurants miss the mark when...
The Future of Point of Sale
Revolutionizing an Integrated & Seamless Buying Experience By Shane Wilson - Special Projects Coordinator Remember this old thing? During its time and place, it served a very valuable purpose -...
The Donation Dilemma
Giving purpose to your donation strategy By Shane Wilson - Special Projects Coordinator Let's face it - it's the time of year where every business is seemingly bombarded with donation...
Millennials – Generation “Why?”
The "Me Me Me Generation" & Our Community By Shane Wilson - Special Projects Coordinator At Emporia Main Street, we have daily discussions about how to move the community forward...
Are You An Artisan Or An Entrepreneur?
The vast majority of the articles included in the newsletter are geared towards businesses and organizations. I thought we'd take a break from that for a week to simply explain...
The Future Economy
Are you (and your business) prepared? Part of the Economic Restructuring point requires us to "look ahead" for future economic trends based on social, technological, environmental, governmental or demographic projections....
Seven Deadly Mistakes That Impact Your Business
Mid-sized communities definitely have their advantages. We get the best of the "small town feel" while we have a variety of different business and organizational opportunities available. Within smaller communities,...
Social Media Insights
Get the most out of your online engagement efforts! By Shane Wilson - Special Projects Coordinator Buffer. SocialBro. Bubbly. Frilp. Am I making up words on the spot, or is...
Building a Business Culture
Modern successful businesses are focused on lifestyle branding - are you? Through the Start Your Own Business Class, countless business start up meetings, and business funding programs, I've had the...
Back to School
Tips to capture an important market! While at the Anderson Building dedication on Sunday, I ran into an area teacher that was speaking with a group of friends. An individual...
Survey Says!
A spot survey conducted revealed your thoughts In an effort to stay more "in tune" with your wants and needs, Emporia Main Street Special Projects Coordinator Shane Wilson recently hit...
Persistent Entrepreneur-ism
A mindset for growth, diversified income and sustained success The Emporia Main Street newsletter often focuses on how to improve existing businesses, take advantage of business opportunities (market gaps) that...
2015 Emporia Main Street Annual Meeting
The Emporia Main Street Annual Meeting tends to emulate the organization itself. We have a group of super busy people that get together to honor productivity and offer thanks to those...
New Tech Tools
Some simple technology can improve your customer communications, recruit help and dress up your data! One of my favorite parts about the National Main Street conference is learning about all...
Who Actually Owns The Road?
Emporia Main Street recently conducted a survey on behalf of a local alternative transportation group. I'm sure they will reference the results of the survey as they move forward with...
Tech Time Savers
Time is a precious commodity for most entrepreneurs. Taking advantage of a few time saving strategies can help free you up for the other 1,000 things you have to do...
Emporia Main Street Data For 2014
Each quarter, Emporia Main Street collects data for an area roughly identified as "downtown". We conduct business outside of this area, but our original state reporting requirements that were tied...
New Data Highlights Impact of Emporia Downtown Historic District
In May of 2012, Emporia Main Street was notified that our request for the development of a Federal and State recognized historic district was granted. For more than three years,...
Is Your Business Too Tech-Dependent?
Many of us are more technology dependent than we would like to admit. If our phones break or we get the "blue screen of death" on a home computer, we...
2014 In Review At Emporia Main Street
Emporia Main Street is a results oriented organization. The culture of measurable activities that push for community growth has been fostered by you, our membership, since the inception of the...
‘Tis the Season For Change
The recognition of fear with the very concept of change is something that all businesses, organizations and communities need to be acutely aware of. Abhorring change in all of its...
New Lyon County Data
The University of Kansas Institute for Policy and Research releases data on the relative standing of Kansas counties. Included in this fifty-one page report are a series of different statistical...
Understanding Millennials & Their Impact On Your Business
Millennials - They have a different way of life, they value different things, and their priorities are different than those of the previous generations. But why should we care to...
Holiday Continuity
Emporia Main Street has the ability to communicate "best practices" or "generally agreed upon traditions" with the local area without saying "you MUST do this." We don't have the power...
Collecting Relevant Sales Information
How are your sales? That's the question that everyone in the business world wants to know! In the non-profit world, you might replace the word "sales" with "donations", or "event...
How Failure To Do One “Little Thing” Can Cost Your Business Big
Most of our business advice columns are specific to a certain industry or category type. Businesses have become more "niche" over the past decade, and those individual nuances mean we...
Is Your Store Visually Appealing?
The Holidays are right around the corner (only 92 days until Christmas, can you believe it?). Is your store ready for 4th quarter? There are some very simple steps you...
10 Free Things You Can Do Right Now To Improve Your Business!
1. Keep it clean. Did you know that consumers determine whether they will enter your business in a 3 second time frame? A clean exterior and attractive windows can make a BIG difference....
Converting Festival Attendees Into Paying Customers
Through the Promotions Point in the Main Street concept, we focus on community marketing, the production of "register ringers" (like Midnight Madness or the Shop Hop) and "gathering" events (like...
