Blog
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." ...
Adjusting Headings
In the Main Street world, there is a concept called "entrepreneurial friction" (some refer to it as entrepreneurial density). Essentially, when entrepreneurs are in close proximity and can communicate with...
Volunteerism
Volunteering simply requires ideas, passion, and a belief in something larger than yourself. Emporia Main Street, like many organizations, is highly dependent on volunteers to achieve success. We have an...
Creating Employee Intersections
Most of us have been in the unenviable situation of needing to replace staff- quickly. It always seems like you are heading into the busiest time of the year, or...
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...
Utilization of the Great Outdoors
Spring is officially here, and although the Kansas weather can be a little unpredictable, we can start counting on warmer weather. As the climate gets a little more comfortable, people's...
National Main Street Conference Kansas City – A unique traffic builder for your business
The National Main Street Conference is March 25th through the 28th in Kansas City, Missouri. Due to the proximity of the conference to Emporia, and our location on a major...
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...
A New “First”
The Emporia Main Street staff, and select volunteers, travel to the National Main Street conference every year. The conference covers trends and techniques that are critical for achieving community and...
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...
