Rowan Business Alliance extends their appreciation to the Salisbury Post for providing us with a reprint of the following article (published in December 2003) for use by RowanAlliance.com.

Small businesses lead the way
By Jillian McCartney
The Salisbury Post

Though our county has tons of them, I never thought about how hard it would be to start and maintain a small business.

This, the topic of much of the November Leadership Rowan program, got me thinking about just what a difficult feat it truly would be. We hear a lot of talk about supporting small-town businesses and you may have even heard of the Rowan Business Alliance’s Shop Rowan First campaign.

If you haven’t, it promotes local services, businesses and agencies in Rowan County, including supplies, restaurants, retail stores, vehicles, architects, builders, recreational activities and financial institutions.

And I support that philosophy -- as long as the quality is there. Luckily there are many quality local merchants in Salisbury and Rowan County. I love businesses like my downtown Salisbury sandwich shops and many of the local knickknack stores, where you can get neat presents you can’t find in other stores.

But there are franchises which make things that no one else - small business or not -- can replace. And I think that¹s OK. For example, I like some of the other treats from our local coffee shops -- such as smoothies and baked goods ‹ but no one makes a Frappuccino like Starbucks. What I wouldn¹t give for that and a local joint with fresh bagels (not a supermarket).

I think we have room in our community for both small and big business to co-exist. Small business owners who spoke to the group recently emphasized that integrity and quality were both very important in their success.

Richard Perkins, with the Rowan Business Alliance, said 70 percent of the nation’s small businesses are owned by a single person. This is why it is so important to keep a strong staff. These small business owners also spoke about their staff as a family or a team and how important it is to treat employees well in order to keep a strong staff - which provides that quality work.

Along with good employees, according to Bank of North Carolina¹s Mark Lewis, small business owners must have cash. He said that is the one thing every business that goes out of business lacks.

George Hough, who recently moved his modular home business out of Rowan County, disagreed, saying the No. 1 thing to sink a new business is procrastination. He quoted Theodore Waller: “Sleep on it and then decide unless you have a competitor who doesn¹t need to sleep.” Hough said, “Someday is not a day of the week.”

Lewis agreed that competition is another thing people attempting to start a new business overlook. Local developer Jake Alexander advised to “know more about what you do than your competitor does.”

But often the problems start before the business is even off the ground, according to Lewis. He said in his experience in banking, less than 10 percent of people who apply for a business loan have a business plan drawn up. I’m sure there is no exact recipe for the success of a small business, but it sounds like the experts are saying you start with a well-thought out business plan and add a cup of integrity, two spoons of community support, a bundle of good employees and a pinch of good, old fashioned competition and at least you¹re off to a good start.