Brundidge is a small town of 2,000 people located in between Montgomery, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida. The town is no different from other towns in the U.S. – there are a lot of vacancies; businesses come and go, and just like the others, as small businesses and factories closed down, big retailers like Walmart came in.
But unlike others, Brundidge is not a ghost town: There is a lot going on in the town and there are plenty of lessons we can learn from Brundidge’s small business owners.
Watching the MSNBC coverage on Brundidge, AL, here are some of the lessons I learn from them; how they survive, even thrive – and keep their beloved town not to disappear.
1. Build a relationship, baby!
It’s all about offering quality service and building relationship; if you want your main street business to survive, you’ve got to offer value, and perhaps more than the service you perform or product you sell, your relationship with your customers will make or break your business.
2. Cut overheads
Sometimes, you need to do whatever it takes to survive; one of the logical things to do is to cut overheads. It’s done by disposing/selling non-critical assets. Another way is to cut business location’s leasing/rental expenses by actually purchasing the property; it’s better to pay for a mortgage than for a rent; the former let you own an asset, the latter don’t.
3. Expand your market
When your local market can’t support you, you need to expand your market – selling to customers in other towns and cities, for example. Marketing your products/services on a wider geographical location can give you continuous growth, despite the lower profit margin on many cases.
4. Adapt to changes
Things changed; policies and regulations, economic climate, new competition, tech advances and so on – in order to survive, small business owners need to adapt to changes.
Changes don’t always mean you need to change your products/services; you can still offer what you are offering for decades, but you need to offer different value to your today’s customers, as they are different from customers decades ago; embracing technology, such as opening an online presence for your brick-and-mortar store, using social media, using local search marketing, etc. can make a big difference.
5. Being different works!
Brundidge, AL features a new, exciting main street business, Studio 116. It’s a unique small business nowhere to be found in the town – a gallery featuring/exhibiting local artists’ works and art/music performances – a hangout place for a local art community.
If you want a main street business success, open a unique, one-of-a-kind business. That’s a proven strategy for success, and Studio 116 proves it.
