Staff Spotlight: Supporting Small for Greater Impact on Main Streets
November is entrepreneurship month! Here are three benefits of supporting small businesses in your community.
In this moment of recovery and opportunity, the work of Main Street and business district organizations is essential to holistic community growth through place-based support for small businesses. Entrepreneurship rates persist at all-time highs, and newer reports suggest that those rates have been highest among communities of color. Spurring new business development, scaling home-based businesses to storefronts, and creating physical environments where businesses thrive are fundamental activities to local economic reinvestment, particularly in socially and economically challenged areas.
With established roles as the go-to resource for place-based economic development, Main Streets and other local business district organizations will continue to play an outsized role in supporting entrepreneurial growth, especially considering that 70% of new businesses in a community are started by local residents. While these organizations have found innumerable ways to stretch their resources to support small businesses throughout the pandemic, no federal program has been enacted to date in response to the need to support business district organizations.
To address this issue, Senators Alex Padilla (CA) and Roger Wicker (MS), and Representatives Troy Carter (MS-02) and Michael Guest (LA-03), have introduced in the Revitalizing Small and Local Businesses Act (S.3340/H.R. 7451). Main Street America is proud to support this legislation that will create a competitive grant program within the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to support business district organizations in rural and underserved areas through the national nonprofit networks in which they participate. By providing a new pathway for EDA resources, the Revitalizing Small and Local Businesses Act (RSLBA) would supplement existing programs to add needed resources and a distribution channel that prioritizes historically disinvested communities and entrepreneurs.
The RSLBA addresses the needs of emerging and established entrepreneurs through funding and technical assistance to create environments in which local businesses thrive. New research affirms: investments in quality of life, including the small business environment and place-based assets, are larger contributors to positive economic outcomes than traditional business incentives. But a successful business district revitalization effort needs a durable local organizational structure with sufficient staffing to develop strategies and execute plans to create place-based support for small businesses.
Robust capacity building for local business district organizations is essential for creating an environment in which small, local businesses can thrive. A lack of capacity for business district organizations, particularly in rural and underserved areas, is a fundamental to barrier the implementation of a broader set of community and economic development activities, including housing, tourism, and placemaking, and the ability to leverage other federal and state opportunities for downtown investments.
The RSLBA sits at the nexus of these concerns, recognizing that business district revitalization is an essential economic development activity and that EDA investments have yet to reach many under resourced communities and organizations. While historic federal recovery investments were directed to EDA's most flexible funding programs, these funds remained inaccessible to the hardest hit, hardest to reach communities. By establishing a specific funding channel that utilizes the reach and capacity of national non-profit organizations and their networks of local partners, the legislation would supplement existing EDA funding strategies to drive investment into communities who are otherwise unable to participate in federal funding streams.
Main Street America is grateful for the work of Senators Padilla and Wicker and Representatives Carter and Guest for their bi-partisan co-sponsorship of this important legislation. As Congress considers the reauthorization of the Economic Development Administration (EDA), Main Street America strongly supports the inclusion of the Revitalizing Small and Local Businesses Act to create more robust and equitable access to federal resources for business district organizations.
Main Street America appreciates the dedicated advocacy work Main Street programs and partners in California, Mississippi, and Louisiana – as well as the strong partnership of national endorsing organizations partnering on this effort.
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Our research team dug into some of the data about the state of Black-owned businesses on Main Street, the structural challenges they face, and how Main Streets can support them.
Main Spotlight: Holiday Shopping During COVID: What Should Main Streets Expect?
Matt Wagner explores how the pandemic may affect the shop small holiday weekend.
Main Spotlight: How Rural Economies Can Leverage the Rise in Remote Work
COVID-19 has led to a rise in remote working. How can small and rural towns leverage this shift to create vibrant local economies?
The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Businesses: Follow-up Survey Report
Detailed findings from our follow-up survey on the impacts of COVID-19 on small businesses to better understand the continued challenges businesses face as the crisis evolves.
Main Spotlight: Recovery and Revitalization Depend on Understanding Human Psyche
How does psychology impact the recovery of our downtowns after the COVID-19 pandemic?
Local Impact: Small Business Saturday
Small Business Saturday® is more than a day to shop. It’s a nationwide movement that shines a spotlight on the importance of supporting small businesses in communities across America.
Community Spotlight: Benson, North Carolina
The Town of Benson started a special project to highlight their downtown businesses.
Community Spotlight: Berkley, Michigan
The Berkley Downtown Development Authority (DDA) proudly debuted its Downtown Berkley Shopping Bag for a Cause through a partnership between Better Life Bags.
Main Spotlight: Learnings from the ESHIP Summit
Supporting new and existing small businesses, and the entrepreneurs who run them, represents a vital aspect of the revitalization of downtowns and neighborhood business districts.
Creating Equitable, Inclusive and Transparent Cities: A Year in Review
The Equitable Economic Development Fellowship is a two-year, one million-dollar effort funded by the Surdna Foundation and the Open Society Foundations to help equity, transparency, sustainability and community engagement become driving forces in local economic development efforts.
Community Spotlight: Mini-Grants Offered to Small Businesses in Jefferson, Iowa
The Jefferson Rotary Club partnered with Jefferson Matters: Main Street to offer mini-grants for building facades and storefront signage to two dozen businesses for up to $500 each.
A Memorable Makeover on Main Street
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) partnered with Retailworks, Inc., a commercial interior design, display and branding firm headquartered in Milwaukee, to launch Wisconsin’s Main Street Makeover Contest.
Creative Discovery on the Maker Trail in Enid, Oklahoma
Kelly Tompkins of Main Street Enid shares more about the Maker Trail project and how it inspired creativity and helped people discover downtown.
City Sidewalks, Dressed in Holiday Style
Too often, as we’re strolling our favorite Main Street, we pass empty or dark shop windows that make us want to hurry home a little bit faster. Imagine instead, a charming streetscape adorned with vibrant, lively window displays, showcasing retailers’ favorite products and seasonal gift ideas.
Community Spotlight: #ShopSmall in Goldsboro, North Carolina
Small Business Saturday promo pic from Downtown Goldsboro, North Carolina, showing all the folks who took the pledge support a small business in their community.
Using Local Search Trends to Attract More Customers to Your Main Street
We’ve put together a practical list of some of the things that local store owners can do right now to help them capitalize on this increasing trend in local searches.
Network Spotlight: Main Street Iowa Restaurant Week
From authentic comfort food to farm-to-fork fresh and everything in between, these restaurants, bars, and cafes are key to the thriving social, business, and residential life in the historic commercial districts in Main Street Iowa communities.
Fab Lab Sparks Rural Opportunities
Located in southeast Kansas, Independence (pop.8,799) is home to Fab Lab ICC, which is on track to be the world’s leading innovator in combining entrepreneurial mindset education with a fab lab maker space.
Community Spotlight: Morganton, North Carolina
The craft beer industry is playing a key role in the rebirth of Main Streets and neighborhood commercial districts across the county.
Rethink Storefront Accessibility to Rethink Community Viability
Appealing to mobility-challenged shoppers yields benefits beyond the store.
Sparking a Movement in Small Business and Small Towns
Being the only person in the know can be fun, exhilarating even. Except when you are the one person out of 600+ in a room and you know bad news is coming.
The Lowdown in Downtown LaBelle
Fritz the dog has made his way into the hearts of the residents of LaBelle, Florida, and helped our Main Street Community find a way to make what we do more noticeable.
Pop-Up Altavista 2.0
Altavista On Track, the local Main Street organization, is working to cultivate and sustain local entrepreneurs with an educational business launch competition, Pop-Up Altavista 2.0.
The Bright Center: A Space for Winchester’s Bright Minds to Create, Innovate and Thrive
In Winchester, Virginia, one woman’s vision and commitment to downtown’s revitalization created an innovative community space for the Creative Class.
Why Business Retention and Expansion Plans are Important for Downtowns
A business retention and expansion plan, properly implemented, not only helps keep businesses open but possibly even helps them expand.
Business Investment Guides: “Think B.I.G.”
The first rule of conducting business is “make it simple.” The easier it is to pay for merchandise, get entertainment or obtain a service, the more likely it is that people will take advantage of those options.
Small Box – A Creative Retail Project
Main Street communities across the country are no stranger to seeking creative strategies to solve their most nagging issues – vacant buildings, marketing downtown, bolstering retail to name a few.
Supporting Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the Heart of Boston’s Main Streets
To understand the role that immigrant business owners play in Boston’s small business ecosystem, you need only to walk through any Boston Main Streets district.
Measuring the Economic Impact of Storefront Improvements
Façade appearance is a critical aspect of the overall aesthetic appeal and unique character of downtown.
Sign Design Guidelines
A lot of signs are necessary to make a downtown work well, but not every community knows what a good sign system looks like, or how instrumental it can be to the creation of a successful downtown.
Improving Performance in Main Street Iowa Communities
Main Street Iowa, a program of the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Iowa Downtown Resource Center, created a one-of-a-kind three-year program to provide help for performance venues located in Main Street districts.
