1/10/2012
Jeff Kolkey

Downtown boosters are rolling out a new series of workshops designed to entice potential small business owners to consider opening a shop in downtown Rockford and give existing businesses new marketing ideas.

The workshops are being organized by the Storefront Downtown Center for Entrepreneurship. The new center was introduced in July as a collaboration of the River District Association and the Rock River Development Partnership funded through a $100,000 federal Small Business Administration grant.

A first workshop called “Promoting your Storefront” is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. on Jan. 19 at Wired Café, 414 E. State St. The workshop will cover marketing strategies, working with the media and public relations techniques aimed at downtown businesses.

More workshops are also being planned by the Storefront, said Cathy McDermott, the manager of the center. A workshop in February at Carlyle Brewing will focus on financing a downtown business and in March the Storefront will host a Rockford City Market Vendor workshop at the Millenium Center.

Its primary mission is to encourage potential small business owners to use the Rockford City Market as a test market. The idea is for business owners to develop a customer base, test new and innovative products.

They would gain valuable experience before moving on to micro-retail locations and hopefully into a full-time downtown storefront eventually.

The City Market is largely credited along with Friday Night Flix with breathing some much needed life into downtown Rockford, especially during the summer. In its first season, the Rockford City Market drew nearly 20,000 visitors and almost 40,000 visitors from across the region in 2011.

McDermott said the challenge now is to capitalize on that interest and momentum by bringing new storefronts to the downtown.

“If you build something that people want, they will come,” McDermott said. “I think that’s what we are showing. To translate that into business, if you have a product, food, restaurant, or retail store that people want, they will find you and come downtown.”




For More Information:
http://www.rrstar.com/blogs/jeffkolkey/x2079021770/Storefronts-goal-Attract-new-businesses-to-downtown-Rockford