Sharing dinner with several other Hollister residents the other
night, we got on the subject of the rise and fall of businesses in
town.
Sharing dinner with several other Hollister residents the other night, we got on the subject of the rise and fall of businesses in town.
Why do some seem to make it, while others sail along for a few months or a year, seemingly OK, then disappear in the dark of night, leaving perhaps an empty storefront and a list of unpaid creditors in their wake?
As a former business owner (having owned The Bookstore on Fifth Street from 1995 to 1998), I know that unrealistic expectations, insufficient capital and unexpected changes in the business (in our case, Amazon.com), all play a role.
In some of the other cases we knew about, these were also factors, compounded by a lack of any business plan at all (we had one, but perhaps didn’t update it rigorously enough), or for that matter any budget, any market research (does Hollister need another restaurant?) or any sense of priorities.
Sometimes what started out as a family enterprise seems to have strained the family relationships to where the members could no longer work together.
Sometimes simple skullduggery is involved.
Yet there are businesses that have survived and thrived for many years.
Tiffany Motors has been selling Fords here since 1903, and the business is still in the hands of the Tiffany family. The business has expanded at least twice, most recently from a landmark building at San Benito and South streets to its current location at Gateway and San Felipe Road.
Muenzer’s Cyclery has been selling bikes, sporting goods and locks and locksmith services since 1910. The business seems to have survived the coming of the big box stores and their cheap bikes and continues to prosper.
Another venerable family-owned business is Maddux Jewelry, thriving in the downtown area for several generations.
A relative newcomer, but a prosperous one, is She’s, owned and operated by Sheila Stevens. In her current location, Stevens has expanded her women’s clothing business three times, now occupying the entire ground floor of what was Ladd’s Hardware.
Let me apologize here to those I have omitted. I’ve included examples I’m familiar with, but I know there are more.
In talking to these business owners, excellent customer service seems to be one aspect of longevity and success, in addition to a good business plan and attention to detail.
If Hollister wants to maintain successful businesses, and eventually attract new ones, especially to the downtown area, what should the city itself do?
I heard an intriguing suggestion on NPR last week. Michael Schuman, author of “Going Local,” a book about fostering successful communities, pointed out that in trying to attract assembly plants or other large employers, states (such as North Carolina wooing Toyota) have offered tax breaks and other subsidies in the millions of dollars. In many cases, these work out to $200,000 per job.
What if Hollister subsidized existing businesses to that degree? Not that Hollister currently has that kind of money, but it would be one way to get around the building moratorium. And if it allowed local businesses to continue to thrive rather than struggle, how much would that be worth?
