{"id":443,"date":"2020-11-15T07:36:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-15T07:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.godaddy.com\/ventureforward\/?p=443"},"modified":"2021-06-11T23:26:56","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T23:26:56","slug":"grants-helping-businesses-adapt-during-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.godaddy.com\/research\/grants-helping-businesses-adapt-during-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"How historic Denison, Texas, went digital to \u201cthrive, not just survive\u201d in the COVID era"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A year ago, Elsie Russell watched as her home d\u00e9cor shop, 2 Chicks Home and Market<\/a>, was heavily damaged by a fire that ripped through the 300 block of historic downtown Denison, Texas. \u201cI just stood across the street with a crowd of people, watching it burn,\u201d she says. \u201cI was thinking \u2018I\u2019ve lost everything. Maybe I just need to shut the business down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, she wasn\u2019t sure if she wanted to attend a boot camp for small business owners that was already scheduled for later that month. Still, friends convinced Russell to attend, and there, among other things, she learned the importance of e-commerce and online business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timing couldn\u2019t have been better: When COVID-19 forced Russell to close up shop again five months later, she had options. She set up new services like curbside pickup and free local delivery through her website. And now, thanks in part to a $6,000 e-commerce acceleration grant<\/a> from the city, 2 Chicks is booming as never before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Christmas Tree Workshop at 2 Chicks Home & Market (left) 2 Chicks Home & Market\u2019s store on Main St., Denison, TX (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince we\u2019ve added e-commerce, our sales have been doubling every month versus last year,\u201d says Russell. \u201cThanks to our website, a lot of people have found us and followed us and are staying with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stories like Russell\u2019s are playing out throughout Denison, a city of 25,000 located about 75 miles north of Dallas. Businesses that had sold mostly to the locals are now selling electronically throughout the U.S. and beyond. They\u2019re also seeing a huge increase in foot traffic as visitors from Dallas and other nearby communities, desperate to escape for a day of shopping, are starting to discover the idyllic downtown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople learn about one of our businesses online and more are deciding to schedule a trip to Denison to visit the store,\u201d says William Myers<\/a>, VP of business development at the Denison Development Alliance. \u201cI guess you could call it e-commerce tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result: Even as much of the country struggles, sales tax revenue in Denison rose 8% in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThanks to our website, alot of people have found us and followed us and are staying with us.\u201d<\/p>Elsie Russell, Owner of 2 Chicks Home & Market<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Denison\u2019s success holds important lessons for other small city mayors and policymakers. Businesses with websites \u2014 whether it\u2019s a small business advertising its wares or someone\u2019s online side hustle \u2014 reduce unemployment and make communities more resilient during economic downturns. Local governments can help the entrepreneurs behind these efforts with training, networking opportunities and financial support. And unlike traditional forms of economic development, such as tax breaks, success has more to do with attention to detail than with large outlays of public funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hear so many people talking about surviving, but we\u2019re thriving,\u201d says Janet Gott, who has been mayor of Denison since 2018. \u201cAnd we wouldn\u2019t be where we are today if we hadn\u2019t moved so quickly. Will our businesses still have a presence on Main Street? Absolutely. But the bulk of their business is going to come from e-commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city looks for ways to help businesses<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Denison\u2019s e-commerce push is just the latest chapter in a decades-long collaboration between city government and the local business community. Since 1988, the City\u2019s Main Street Program has offered grants, skills training and promotional help to downtown businesses. In 2015, the city began a multiphase, $45 million beautification of the historic, 31-block shopping district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took the pandemic to get the city focused on the digital realm. The city\u2019s 2019 financial annual report<\/a> includes no mention of the words \u201ce-commerce,\u201d \u201conline\u201d or even \u201cdigital.\u201d But when Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statewide shutdown on March 31, Myers immediately started looking for data on how increasing online business activity could help the city cope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He eventually found Venture Forward<\/a>, GoDaddy\u2019s research initiative on the economic impact of online entrepreneurs who run the 20 million microbusinesses in the U.S. The data shows that a higher concentration of these \u201cventures\u201d in a city or county leads to lower unemployment rates and helps with faster recovery from economic downturns. The stat that grabbed Myers\u2019 attention the most: adding even one highly active venture per 100 people can increase a community’s median household income by $408.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was exactly the type of information I needed,\u201d says Myers. \u201cEven if it turns out to be half of that, it\u2019s an extraordinary number.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Search Venture Forward for data about your community<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A former real estate broker who joined the DDA in 2013, Myers spent the next three weeks calling more than a dozen online business experts just to learn the basics, like what\u2019s a \u201cconversion\u201d and what\u2019s a \u201cbounce rate.\u201d He and his team spent hours studying how different companies set up shopping carts, communicated with customers and provided support via their websites, \u201cjust so we could call up businesses and have some idea of what we were talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designing a program to boost online selling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Myers\u2019 first idea was to set up a marketing cooperative, where the city would promote online sales for local businesses. But talking with local business owners quickly convinced his team to take a different path. A huge percentage of Denison\u2019s brick-and-mortar businesses were at digital square one. Maybe they put some posts on Facebook or Instagram, but hardly any could take a digital payment. Even fewer had a proper e-commerce platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since an online marketing program wouldn\u2019t be of much help to companies that couldn\u2019t take online orders, Myers\u2019 team quickly landed on other ways to help. The city updated policies to allow additional restaurant seating on the sidewalks. It also created sandwich boards reserving several curbside pickup parking spaces on each block for businesses that were still open for business even if the doors were shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Myers\u2019 team settled on the idea of the e-commerce accelerator incentive: grants for brick-and-mortar businesses that may not survive if they couldn\u2019t quickly ramp up sales to sustain cash flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Read how Minnesota is helping residents start microbusinesses<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The city didn\u2019t want to take a cookie-cutter approach. \u201cEvery business is different. Every single one of them,\u201d says Myers. \u201cSo we didn\u2019t want to tell them what to do. We wanted to help them find what was best for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
2 Chicks Home & Market e-commerce site, launched after COVID-19 closures, helped to double sales each month<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In May, just two months after Denison\u2019s stores were closed due to COVID-19, Mayor Gott approved a program<\/a> to provide $6,000 grants to help local entrepreneurs succeed online. The terms required recipients to invest 75% of the funds to create an e-commerce capability, such as buying technology to build a store and preparing a marketing campaign. The other 25% needed to be spent on advertising and other expenses to promote that work. Also, the grants would be available only on projects with a total cost of $8,000 or more \u2014 meaning the business owners would have to fund some of the projects themselves. While many municipal grants offer to pay 50% of the cost of projects, Denison bumped the cap up to 75% to encourage business owners to hire local digital marketing consultants, photographers and other experts, and to invest in online tools. \u201cThese business owners are experts in what they do, not in websites or doing social media,\u201d says Myers. \u201cSome of our restaurants just had bad pictures of food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spreading the wealth beyond the grant recipient results not only in better websites with better photos and features, but in a richer local digital economy. Using the Venture Forward dataset<\/a>, researchers at UCLA recently established that every online entrepreneur in a community creates more than two jobs (whether or not they are actual employees).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A grant in action<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Myers expected to get 10 applicants at most, but the city handed out 16 grants in the fiscal year. One of those was Russell, who stayed up until 3 a.m. working on her application on the night the program was announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be able to do all this so soon without that grant.\u201d<\/p>Elsie Russell, Owner of 2 Chicks Home & Market<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Russell also had to rethink her design and DIY workshops. She quickly created kits of materials that people could buy to do a particular project, such as making a painted mini Christmas tree, from the safety of their own homes. And by offering classes online, she\u2019s able to teach far more people than could have fit in the workshop area of the store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been able to expand her business far beyond what she could have done if it was all brick-and-mortar,\u201d says Mayor Gott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Download the full Venture Forward data set<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Russell used her grant money to purchase a webcam for the virtual classes and upgraded her point-of-sale system so it integrates with her inventory system. She\u2019s also working with Melanie Medina, owner of Local Socialight <\/a>and a digital marketing expert, to create YouTube and Pinterest channels where she can sell products and recordings of her classes. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to hit all of the mediums out there,\u201d says Russell. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have been able to do all this so soon without that grant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only is Russell more successful, she\u2019s also happier now that she\u2019s brought on partners to handle the social networking, bookkeeping and other tasks. \u201cI started this business because I have a passion for sharing inspired things and helping people make their homes beautiful. I had gotten so far away from that with the daily tasks of running a shop as a sole proprietor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denison\u2019s city government is thrilled with the return on its $100,000 grant program investment. The businesses have invested an additional $40,000 and they are now much more vibrant enterprises. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be where we are without it, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d says Mayor Gott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Constant support and e-commerce grants help brick-and-mortar businesses adapt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-spotlight","tag-home"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGrants Helping Businesses Adapt During Covid | Venture Forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How historic Denison, Texas, went digital to \u201cthrive, not just survive\u201d in the COVID era by implementing grants and support programs for businesses.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.godaddy.com\/research\/grants-helping-businesses-adapt-during-covid\/\" \/>\n<meta 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