Why are Small Businesses Closing?

In the last few weeks, I’ve watched as several small, black-owned businesses in Uptown Charlotte have closed their doors, including the Sports One bar, Loft and Cellar, Basel Coffee and Sydney’s Martini and Wine Bar. Add the struggle to find a buyer for the historic Excelsior Club and many are speculating about why these businesses haven’t been successful.  It’s not necessarily the ability to draw customers – many of these businesses had a strong following, an active social media presence and a great product. Some closed due to financial difficulties, while it is not as clear why others closed. Many people suggest that these businesses didn’t get enough community support, particularly from the black community. Others speculate that their business practices, customer service, products or pricing models weren’t well developed or matched to the market they wanted to serve. Still others believe that the Uptown market is difficult and expensive for small business owners to navigate. I believe there’s never an easy answer and it’s disappointing to watch businesses you love close their doors.  While there’s never an easy answer, here are two ways I think we can better support businesses to help them create stable, successful enterprises:

1. 1. Shop small. We vote with our dollars. If a small business has a product or service we love, we need to patronize them before heading to the box store or chain restaurant down the street. Small businesses give neighborhoods rich personality and community and we should fight to keep that alive by supporting our neighbors first.
   2. Make support accessible. Passion, hustle and a great product can’t be taught or manufactured. Unfortunately, these traits don’t always mean that entrepreneurs have the business skills needed to make a business thrive. We need to support more programs in Charlotte like the Community Business Academy that help entrepreneurs develop skills such as marketing acumen, pricing models, business planning, hiring and more.

There’s a lot to learn from every success and failure and I think it’s important for communities to have honest discussion to make sure we’re all growing and improving. I’d love to hear your thoughts around this – what do you think led to these businesses closing? Do you think we need to support small business owners in different ways? Join us on Facebook to chime in on the conversation.