Business Is Booming

How Things Really Work.mp3
Narrator: [00:00:01] Business is booming. From the small mom and pops to the big industries. Our local businesses drive our economy and provide the products, services and jobs we depend on. Our host, Jennifer McCurdy, brings us these stories as she visits with the business owners and leaders of Fort Payne and DeKalb County, Alabama. And now here's Jennifer.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:00:25] Welcome back my Business is Booming podcast listeners. I have again with me today my friend Stephen Smith with Rare Life Media. He and I, as most of you have, if you've listened to us in the past, you know that I bounce my ideas off of him and he's a clever man. So he always comes back with some good advice for me. And so through our years, we've just kind of he's just been my mentor, I would say. And I might have said that before, but if I haven't, it's true. You have been my mentor, so I appreciate that.

Stephen Smith: [00:00:58] Well, that works both ways, Jennifer. I've learned a lot from working with you, too.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:01:01] Well, he scratches his head a lot. I'll tell you that, when he's listening to me. But today we've got a fun topic. How things really work. Take that in a minute, listeners. How things really work.

Stephen Smith: [00:01:17] Yeah, I think this is going to be a fun topic. And really, if you recall the way this came about, you and I were emailing about something and. You said that we really need to address in the podcast sometime how, you know, the things don't just happen. So, you know, it's easy to get on Facebook in particular, and you see people expressing their opinion about what the community needs. And, you know, everyone has different opinions, and some things matter to some people that might not matter to another group of people. You might have a demographic that nighttime activities are really important to them, and then you might have others that their idea of a nighttime activity is a stroll through Walmart and then, you know, be home by 630. And so there are different needs, different concerns. But when you see people talk about the things that we need in the community. It's it's easy for a disconnect to be there, I think, don't you? Don't you agree.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:02:21] 100%.

[00:02:22] They don't really know. How do things happen?

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:02:24] Yes. How do things really work?

Stephen Smith: [00:02:26] So you're driving down the road and you see a new business going up, and you go, oh, great, we're getting a whatever. Yeah. How did we get that whatever? And I think that because people have their lives and, you know, that's not the focus of what they do. They have no exposure to that. So we thought it would be a fun episode to kind of walk through the various elements of how things work. How do we get these things? Yeah, and the roles that people might can play and bringing what they think the community needs to light. I kind of like to look at it like. For a for a city. You have a recruitment factor. You have an investment factor. And certainly I might get you to talk about the role that the city of Fort Payne, the mayor, the chamber, the economic development group. There are people involved in getting our name out there.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:03:26] Yes.

Stephen Smith: [00:03:27] So talk about that a little bit.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:03:28] The recruitment part is really based on what the perception of what we need in the community based on facts, numbers. There's reports that we have access to that that indicate where there are leakages in certain products. Or it might be whether it be groceries, whether it be restaurants. I mean, it goes into clothing, alcohol sales. It gets down to the nitty gritty.

Stephen Smith: [00:03:56] Now, what do you mean by leakages?

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:03:59] People are going other places to find that product or that good or that service. They're leaving our community and going somewhere else. And it tells you specifically how much money you're leaking out. So, you know, I mean, sometimes it's not very much. So it's really not worth it. You know, this is not bad. We're good. Sometimes there's a significant leakage. So those are the things you kind of think, well what would that look like here and how can we get that. But there's so many factors that go into that. Even if you think, oh my gosh, we need let's say what can we say that we need? We'll just say, let's just go out on a limb here and say a target. I'm just throwing that out there. There's been no evidence that there's a leakage for a target. But a lot of people love target. If we needed that, what would we look at? How would we know? Well, you have to look at not just, I mean, the location for one, is the most important thing. If it was identified that there was a leakage there, and they look at traffic count and what they're looking at is the traffic count all around Fort Payne, which everything is around Walmart.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:05:07] And as you all know, there's not a lot of land over there available. So and they want a specific part of that stretch on 35, I mean they're very specific on where they want to be, the traffic count and entrances and exits. So all those factors have to be in play. And some people generate more revenue than others. Some businesses do more tax dollars back into the community. And you have to look at is this business established? Have they a proven record of success in their communities? Those things you have to consider too, especially if you're doing some any kind of incentives with them, because you want to know that what you're getting is more than likely going to be successful and produce tax revenue. And you're not really by giving them tax incentives. It's not like you're losing a lot of money from that because you're getting a business that's giving you revenue you otherwise wouldn't have had, right? So you have to kind of look, there's a lot of factors there. Another you know, we talked about businesses on 35, and that's where the bulk of the businesses want to be. Which is true. A lot of people, including myself, would love to see more businesses on the north end of town.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:06:21] The thing with that is it's the chicken or the egg here, because in order for smaller businesses to come, maybe coffee shops or just little Wendy's, I don't know, McDonald's, things like that. They really would like for you to have an anchor building or an anchor establishment there first. But the anchor establishments are also looking at traffic count, which we don't have a lot there yet because there's not an anchor building, there's not an anchor establishment there. So it's the chicken or the egg. So there's, it does when you're not in it, it does seem like. "But gosh, why? Why aren't we doing this?" It just makes sense. Why don't we have this? We agree we want it to. But in the grand scheme of things, there are a lot of factors that play into this. And so those have to all be considered. And. Oftentimes it's just not a match like it might be eventually, but just today it's not. There's always things that we're in the process of doing and we're working on to try to get more things in our community and build upon what we already have. It just takes time.

Stephen Smith: [00:07:34] And really, you're talking about the recruitment piece of it. You've touched on the corporate in particular, but when it comes to the things that might be considered a small business or that might not even be the typical small business that you think about, those are the type of endeavors that really the investment piece comes in.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:07:59] That's right.

Stephen Smith: [00:08:00] Because nothing just happens. Things don't just happen.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:08:05] Yes. If they did, wow, wouldn't that be nice, right?

Stephen Smith: [00:08:08] Right. You know, we see you know, you see a business come into an existing building and you think, oh great, there's a business there or they're not, they're not open the hours that are convenient for me or they're. Oh, well, that business just moved out. I guess they didn't make it. Of course, I never went in there and checked them out or spend any money and supported them with it. Behind every small business is an investor that has put their hard earned money, their reputation and sometimes not their money, but just their credit. Their leverage. You know, people think, oh, someone's opened a business. Well, they must have lots of money. Most of the time they just have good credit, good friends and the intestinal fortitude to put it on the line and get out there and bring something to the community. So let's talk about that investment piece. One thing in particular that you see come up a few times in on Facebook in particular, where people talk about, activities like entertainment. They'd love to see, you know, bowling lanes or, you know, a big, nice modern movie theater or things of that nature in town. The reality is, to make that happen, the Chamber of Commerce can talk to people, cty council can talk to people, the mayor can talk to people, but someone has to put their signature on the line. And from a financial standpoint, and the time commitment to make that happen.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:09:52] Yes, it's I think a misconception is that it's the city's responsibility to provide entertainment like bowling alleys and movie theaters for the community, when in actuality, when you go into these other communities that have those things, those are private investors who have done that. That's not the city. And I'm sure if someone that had multiple bowling alleys or multiple movie theaters and a proven history of success, there could probably be some negotiation on how can we help you. You know, what can we do to help you? I'm not saying financially it might be land or it might be something else. It might be a building, I don't know. But it's not going to be just for somebody who says, I've never had a business, I'm going to start a bowling alley. That doesn't happen in any community. You have to have some credit, some credibility and be able to. Unless you want to do it yourself. I mean, I'm just saying, if you're asking for money from somebody or asking for some assistance. But most of those places are businesses like entertainment or investors, developers that own those. It's not through the city or any, and most of them really aren't recruited.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:11:14] They're just identified within the community and brought and they come in themselves. But as individuals in the community, you know, our movie theater is owned by an individual. They invested in that put his own money into it. That's his right. I mean, nobody can control what happens there. And if a person in our community wanted to have a movie theater, they could purchase some land, build the movie theater, make it happen. That's an investment. And we have local investors that have invested in downtown, and it's looking fantastic. And what they've done is bought and purchased buildings, renovated those buildings and found tenants for those buildings. And some of those we've helped with some. I mean, you know, the investors can say, hey, we'd like to see this here. Do you know anybody that might be interested or has anybody contacted you that's interested in starting a small business? And then we obviously we try to help them as much as we can, because the more buildings downtown that are full, the better we are as a community.

Stephen Smith: [00:12:20] Right. And the the property owners aren't the only quote unquote investors in a small business coming into a town. That owner, whether they purchased that property or they're just leasing that property from a private property owner. They're also an investor because even if they're just paying monthly rent, they are still bringing their business and their ideas and that commerce, that economic activity and putting their time and effort into that. I want to circle back to something you said earlier, Jennifer. You said it's not, it's not the city's responsibility to make these things happen. But the city's role is — and the chamber works with that — really their role, and I think the way we need to think about this is that they foster an environment in which small businesses can thrive.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:13:24] Yes. And want to do business here? Yes, that's exactly right. It's a partnership and a support. I mean, we all want to lift each other up, right?

Stephen Smith: [00:13:35] This is a really small thing. This is a small example, but, in downtown Fort Payne, where we're sitting recording this podcast. If you come down here in the afternoons, in the evenings, and you want to go you want to walk around and visit a restaurant here and do that. And there are lights strung from building to building down here. That may not seem like much. And someone could look at that and say, big deal. The city hung lights. But you drive through a dark town at night. An old downtown, how inviting is that?

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:14:18] It's not at all inviting. Our downtown is gorgeous. Gorgeous. The holidays are coming up, and Christmas in downtown Fort Payne is like a Hallmark movie.

Stephen Smith: [00:14:29] I hear that all the time.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:14:30] It certainly we had some people, we're off track, but so what? We had some people come in to set up the ice skating rink. When we did that several years ago, we rented it the first year and now Main Street purchased it with the help of the city. And every year now during the holidays, we will have it's synthetic ice, but it's still it's something local to do and it is fun and kids love it. So the people that were setting it up, the gentleman doing it, he looked at me and he said, this is the most beautiful downtown. It is gorgeous. He said. We could feel movies here, literally. I said, bring on the movies, let's do it. But people that just travel through, they. I hear it all the time. We can't wait to visit Fort Payne during the holidays. It's so pretty there.

Stephen Smith: [00:15:15] And see, that's another great example. Jennifer, you've got the chamber bringing in the ice skating. You've got Main Street. You said purchasing that, carrying it on. The city put money in it so that Main Street could again that might seem like a small thing, but if I'm a small business owner who depends on foot traffic, I'm going to look at that. And I'm going to say that's one more example of something that the town, the chamber or Main Street that people are working together to do to get people into downtown. Yes, to get people out where they're more likely to spend money.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:15:54] And we do this. Seems it does seem small, but again it brings in foot traffic. We have our holiday open house every year from the first weekend in November. Our merchants do. It's such a fun weekend. It's packed with things to do. All the merchants have their stores decorated. They have specials going on. With Main Street and the chamber advertise that we put it on the radio. We put it in the newspapers online just to try to help support our small businesses for that weekend, to try to get even more people shopping with them. We spend those dollars gladly because we know in return our merchants are getting more money because of it, and we want them to. We want them to succeed.

Stephen Smith: [00:16:38] And that's not just well, and you look also at the this Thursday night program that's been going on. Yes. What kind of feedback have you been getting from that?

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:16:48] Wonderful. The merchants are loving it. I mean, it's been great, I think. And some merchants are even saying they might start in general, just staying open later one night a week, just moving forward after the holidays so it could spur off some more ideas and and more commerce downtown.

Stephen Smith: [00:17:06] And that's back to your chicken and egg thing. I mean, if people if we create that expectation that there are going to be things open later. Then people will come. Yes, but we can't wait on the people to come before we do those things.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:17:24] And so and I think sometimes people give up on ideas too soon. I like that this was a commitment. Like we're going to do this for X amount of time, not just one and done. A lot of times people can't come the first time, but, you know, maybe the second time and the fifth time they can come. It's a matter of convenience and sticking to it. And people, if they're not used to doing it, you have to get into the habit or, you know, knowing that it's happening versus if you're not used to it and not expecting it. So I think that just the consistency of it also helps.

Stephen Smith: [00:17:55] Yeah. And really to you look at the was it the Third Saturday?

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:18:01] Yes Third Saturday. That happens April through October, and that brings in old cars downtown and merchants. A lot of the merchants stay open late for that. And music downtown food trucks. It's fun. It's just a fun time.

Stephen Smith: [00:18:16] Boom Days.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:18:17] And oh my gosh, that sadly it rained during the day. That was a bummer for us, but the entertainment was fantastic and it did not rain at night, so it was still a fantastic event.

Stephen Smith: [00:18:29] It's not one giant thing, it's several things that you do all along that, again, fosters that whole sense of community, that there's something. And of course, a lot of what we're talking about here centers around downtown. But the benefits expand out beyond downtown. I mean, how many people are going to come to see the car show? On the Third Saturday, but then they're going to go to Santa Fe and eat or whatever. You know, they're going to go out somewhere else.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:18:58] Our restaurants, after any event we have. I know every year after Boom Days, all the businesses, restaurants that are open still say they're just packed out. People tell me, I go to this place, they're packed, I go to this, they're just packed out. So they're receiving that revenue as well. And the benefits of our events as well, which is what we want.

Stephen Smith: [00:19:19] It's easy to sit back and look at all these different factors and say, "Well, that just sounds like a flurry of things." But you're not throwing things to the wall and seeing what sticks.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:19:30] No.

Stephen Smith: [00:19:31] It's strategic.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:19:32] Yes it is. It is strategic. And we've even with the help of the city, we now have a program, a software program in place that's going to help us be even more strategic. It's very detailed as far as recruitment, and it gets into even not necessarily the big names. It can be smaller businesses that maybe have three franchises that aren't really franchises. It could be a mom and pop that has three different locations that are downtown, perhaps, and they fit our demographics, and it's maybe we can have them in our downtown. And that's a smaller business that we're bringing into town. And all these smaller businesses support our industry just as much as our industry supports our small business. Our industries want all these things, too, because it helps keep their employees happy and staying in our communities and living here versus saying, I'm moving away and then them needing another employee or two. So the more we can have for our industries, employees who are our community really to do. And keep them here, the better our entire community is. And our workforce.

Stephen Smith: [00:20:42] Yeah, your corporate folks, they don't want to locate in what feels like a dead end town.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:20:48] That's right. They won't. And I think people take for granted the significance of having a hospital in your community and health care. That's huge. Industries and businesses will not locate to communities that do not have a hospital. That's a key factor in their decision is the health care and the school systems.

Stephen Smith: [00:21:08] Yeah, that's on the short list.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:21:09] It's on the short list. So. Those things are kind of I think oftentimes, especially health care taken for granted. And we do have good health care providers in our community. Most of the people that are in our community, they're health care providers, work here, live here, spend money here. So we're thankful for that.

Stephen Smith: [00:21:28] So let's say someone's listening to this, or the next time they see a comment on Facebook and go, you know what we do need? We keep going back to the bowling alley. Let's do a bowling alley. Let's do that. We do need a bowling alley, and it needs to have the old analog Pac-Man and and pinball machines, and I'm going all in on it. They're not. They don't have to do it alone. Right. And lots of times, the best idea and the stamina to do that. The willpower to do that might come from someone who has never written a business plan, who's never read a P&L, who has never signed their name on the kind of financing deal that it would take to pull something like that off. The Chamber of Commerce is a starting point for that person, right?

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:22:17] That's correct. Obviously, we don't know it all, but we have wonderful partners who do know a lot. So we have partnered with Jacksonville State University, and Ken Grissom has been on the show with me before, and they provide free help to those who are interested in starting a small business. So if you think you know what, I've got money I can invest or enough to. Credit. I've got good credit and I think I can do this. Well, you don't want to just think you can do it. You need to come talk to us. We'll get you set up with JSU. They can sit down with you and walk you through it step by step and by the end of meeting with them. And it will take more than one meeting. You need to be, you know, a few meetings with them, but again, it's free. They can help you decide whether or not this is something a fit for you. Or maybe it's not. And but wouldn't you rather know it's not a fit for you before you start making those investments? So I would encourage you if you think you're interested in starting a business, bring it on. We want the entertainment. I encourage you to come talk to us. We'll get you set up with JSU. They'll get you on the right path. And before you know it, we'll all be bowling and playing Pac-Man.

Stephen Smith: [00:23:35] I love it. All right, well, this has been a good combo about really how things work. We talk about the recruitment element of it and the collaboration between so many entities to create an environment, foster that community spirit to where there's things going on. Small things from lights to make a town look inviting to activities such as the skating rink and all the holiday activities and whatnot. Just creating a place where people want to go and then looking for those that are fun. Teaser. You gave us there on some plans that you might have coming up some software to help with some of that.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:24:17] Well, just know that people are working toward the betterment of our community. That's what we all want. The city, everyone that the city council, the mayor, the chamber, Main Street, EDA, we what we want is the same thing. You want our community to be fun, thriving. All inclusive, inviting, welcoming, thriving. So we're all we're always working toward that. And things don't happen overnight. It's we would just encourage you to be patient and be supportive. If someone says they're opening up a business and taking a chance on our community and bringing revenue to our community, let's be supportive of them and excited for that person because they're taking a chance. I don't think there's a job harder than being a small business owner. That is because you are it, and we've talked about that before you. That's their job 24/7. Their their income depends on it. So I would say instead of being maybe feeling like negative about a business, maybe you don't think needs to be here. Just if you can't say anything positive, just don't say anything. Or how about a pat on the back? And thank you for coming to Fort Payne and taking a chance on us. We appreciate that.

Stephen Smith: [00:25:33] Yeah, it's it's not for me, but I'll, I'll go by and spend a dollar with you and wish you the best of luck.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:25:38] That's right.

Stephen Smith: [00:25:40] And the recruitment aspect. We talked about the investment aspect. Chamber of Commerce has so many resources. If you're thinking about I see a gap. I see a need in this community. Who knows, you may be the one to to fill that, go by and get set up with JSU and have that meeting and and see what we can make happen.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:26:02] Hey, Stephen, I'll be the first in line to bowl.

Stephen Smith: [00:26:05] Oh, that's right, that's right.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:26:07] Whatever business you want to open here, we'll try our best to support you, but we definitely can get you off on the on the right path. Starting out, I think, you know, you want your best foot forward, and we want to help you do that.

Stephen Smith: [00:26:19] All right. Very good combo Jennifer.

Jennifer McCurdy: [00:26:21] I've enjoyed it Stephen. Thank you.

Stephen Smith: [00:26:22] Thank you.

Narrator: [00:26:24] You've been listening to Business Is Booming, a podcast brought to you by Fort Payne Chamber of Commerce. The host is chamber director Jennifer McCurdy. Executive producer Steven B Smith. Our engineer is Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studios. Business Is Booming is a production of Rare Life Media.