LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) — When you’re looking for a gauge of community success, you don’t have to look any further than its small businesses — especially on Small Business Saturday.
The annual shopping day has been around for 14 years, and at the Central District, the support is visible not only this weekend but throughout the year from both new and returning customers.
Ev’Dera has been selling high-quality, organic-based bath, body and wellness products for about two years. And when customers have questions, owners say they have the answers about the products they make and sell.
“Since we're small and we're local, when they come in, we definitely talk to everybody. We greet them a lot of times. We develop relationships over time, so they keep coming back, and you just develop this real sense of community around each other, which is one of the foundations for community and small businesses,” said Michael Thompson, owner of Ev’Dera.
The owners of Modish Maven agree that the personal touch they offer not only helps their customers, but strengthens their business as well. Small businesses rely heavily on the communities they operate in, and community members often become more than customers.
“We build relationships here with our customers. I really, really enjoy getting to know them. You know, what's going on in their day to day lives, and just talking about their families and things, and then also getting the pleasure of helping them find something wonderful here at Modish Maven,” said Tonya Gendreau, owner of Modish Maven.
Businesses in the Central District say the support they receive doesn’t come just from shoppers — they depend on one another as well.
“It's incredible. We get to, you know, like, feed off of each other and bounce ideas off of each other, collaborate together. So it is, it's been beneficial with all of us being newer businesses, to be able to have that support,” Gendreau said.
“There's things that when you're a small business that sometimes you don't know how to get through, and so you may go and ask someone else who has another small business, who has been around a little bit longer, or who can partner with you to do a different thing. So at the end of the day, it's really about the community, no matter whether you're going from small business to small business, or whether you're talking with customers and friends,” Thompson added.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, there are about 36 million small businesses in the United States, representing 99% of all businesses in the country — giving small businesses a major impact on the nation’s economy.
