Useful resources for running your small business.

Your Business Blueprint: Why You Need a Business Plan

A quick message before we dive in- 

Does Amazon help or hurt small businesses? It’s a question on a lot of entrepreneurs’ minds, especially since the pandemic forced so many local stores to move their focus to online shopping in order to stay afloat. Amazon’s commercials boast that a large percentage of their sellers are small businesses, even showing a store owner packing up boxes in their garage with the familiar arrow smile logo we all know so well, stamped on the side. From their website: “At Amazon, supporting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) is a fundamental part of our work and an extension of our customer-centric culture. We see value in investing in the success of sellers, artisans, authors, package-delivery and logistics services, and software developers. When they thrive, our customers benefit from the products and services they offer. That’s part of the reason that over the course of 2019 and 2020, Amazon will have invested more than $30 billion in logistics, tools, services, programs, and people to foster the growth of our SMB sellers.” Many smaller retailers are thinking it may be in their best interest to work with Amazon as opposed to against it. A new Small Business Awards program was announced, aimed at celebrating small businesses with Amazon seller or vendor accounts. According to the press release, they intend to invest more than $15 billion this year to help third-party sellers grow through their platform. “We are committed to helping them harness the power of online sales, reach new customers, and provide fantastic selection, value, and convenience,” says Nicholas Denissen, Amazon Vice President of Small Business whose been with the company for over a decade . Recently, Amazon had “Prime Day” and according to their blog, this past Prime Day 2021 was the biggest two-day period ever for third-party sellers, nearly all of which are small and medium-sized businesses, growing even more than Amazon’s retail business. Amazon says its working to help small companies “operate at Amazon speed and scale” by taking a large portion of the logistics off their plate, inviting them to partner with their brand. Here in Seattle, we just so happened to be living in the birthplace of some major corporations that are taking over the world. Starbucks coffee cups have become a photo accessory on social media posts globally. Influencers in England are doing brand deals with Amazon Prime to promote that you can literally buy ANY-thing from their website. So does that mean it’s time to jump on the bandwagon if it’s an opportunity to expand your online sales and help keep that brick-and-mortar afloat? Especially considering online sales hit $791.70 billion in 2020, up 32.4% from $598.02 billion in the prior year, according to Commerce Department figures, thanks to Covid. It’s a decision everyone has to weigh in on using their own better judgment. UPDATE: We have been getting the feedback we hoped for from small businesses around Tacoma after we posted this blog. Earlier in the week, we asked for an open discussion about it and wanted to hear from our local entrepreneurs as to how they feel about Amazon. We will continue to update here if we get more responses trickling in, but we did get some really great feedback from you all. First, we heard from Craft Theory Lakewood , fluid artist(s) based here in WA, they linked A Drop In The Ocean’s page and recommended their blog titled “How to Break Up with Amazon” . It has some important information on how, in their research, Amazon has impacted the environment, small businesses, its own employees, and even Covid. They also mentioned in the blog- “Amazon uses its massive access to big data to track what products sell well on its platform. When they find a product doing well, they’ll turn around, mass-produce that exact same item themselves, then use their own technology to boost their product in the listings and push the original product to the bottom.” It’s interesting this was mentioned in their blog post when we got similar feedback from Mattice of Mattice Beauty Supply here in Tacoma as well. “My cousin in California has a small shop. She is on Amazon. She, like myself, sells items you can get at other stores. What Amazon did was see what some of her best sellers were (ex. Sharpies pens in pastels) then they’d change their own prices so it’s lower. By being on their site they now have access to seeing your high sellers and your price. They can even make a cheaper version by making an “Amazon basics” brand of whatever item. I’m weary of it.“ We asked if her cousin felt like it was even worth joining forces with Amazon as a small business and she mentioned how the first 6 months was ok, she said, “A lot of it was trying to get folks to know she too was on Amazon and how to make things easier with shipping, etc. But after the 6 months, she noticed she was getting underbid.” And that if you specifically looked for an item Amazon would do one of their own ads for the same item at a lower price. So how do we navigate this? How do we find a way to resolve the issues faced with competing with lower prices? It sounds like raising awareness to the shoppers that they can choose to shop small is imperative. If they do choose to shop on Amazon, which gets over a million daily purchases alone, they need to know they have an option to support a small local business before they click-n-buy, even if it means paying a little more. A great idea A Drop in the Ocean’s blog made is the pledge to shop 1 in 5. “The Shop 1 in 5 Pledge encourages us all to make just one in five of our purchases from a small business – whether online or offline.” So breaking the practice of clicking and buying or stopping into the big markets to shop for something that can just as easily be purchased locally from a small business in your area. That is such a simple habit shift we all could undoubtedly make. Please do go read their blog, it’s full of information and their entire website is dedicated to sustainability and raising awareness to lower your carbon footprint as well as being an online store! Click here for more reading. Thanks to all who’ve shared the info with us, we appreciate you! RESOURCES: Amazon Blog Forbes Blog: Amazon Friend or Foe? Digital Commerce 360: Online Shopping Statistics A Drop in the Ocean Blog

It never gets old hearing what people have to say about our workshops, especially when we hear that it’s going to be helpful and useful to a small business owner, and nearly everyone mentions how they’ve enjoyed bouncing ideas off of the other cohorts. It’s heartwarming, it’s inspiring, and it’s why we do what we do.

Right off Pacific on a strip of local small businesses here in Tacoma, you might have spotted Charme Nails & Skin Studio. It’s a cozy & beautiful downtown nail salon in a walkable area of shops and restaurants. They only use good-for-you techniques and products in that, they don’t use water in their salon and they don’t offer damaging acrylics either.

The thrift and flea market game in Tacoma is strong. Something noticeably stands out from other cities nearby like Portland or Seattle, and that is the variety of vendors literally covers every single thing one could be into. At every outdoor market or thrift-con we’ve been to in Tacoma, the variety takes you from vintage men’s t-shirts and hats, upcycled tie-dyed band tees, homeopathic goods, locally crafted baths and body care, and designer brand sneakers for the most collectory of collectors. That’s barely scratching the surface too.

If you live in Tacoma you might have noticed when making your way down 6th Ave, a bright new storefront has popped up next to The Red Hot. Komadre Kombucha, a “kombucha taproom” is the latest addition to the block and to say the crew at Urban Biz is excited about it, is an understatement.

We are recognizing three years of workshop success with our cohorts, and are joining forces with our community to raise funds to continue our mission of helping small businesses fight gentrification in Pierce & King Counties!

Yesterday, the CDC announced fully vaccinated people can go out and about without wearing a mask. Today, businesses are scrambling to post on social media, requesting everyone continues wearing a mask in their establishment to deter any confusion.

If you’ve ever sat on the patio at Moctezuma’s for some of their mind-blowing chimichangas in Tacoma, then you might have noticed a big blue store across the street that you just can’t miss.

If you’ve seen us talking about our workshops on social media and have been curious what it’s like, here’s a brief idea of what Oliver, our Executive Director, discusses in each one. This short video recorded from our zoom workshop, “Business in the Time of Covid” that took place last week gives a behind-the-scenes peek.

Updated: May 4, 2021 The SBA has just shared the Restaurant Revitalization Fund press release and to prevent misinformation, we took verbatim highlights from this announcement and have included some of the pieces that stuck out to us the most. For more information and how/when to apply, click the links down below. We’ve been informed it will continue to roll out over time, so be sure to follow the link to receive email updates so you don’t miss anything!

We have another video tutorial! We just love to share these quick tips with you and also, it gives you a little insight as to what we talk about in our workshops.

Ever since the 1960’s when gentrification was first coined as a term by Ruth Glass, corporate businesses have been trying to spin it to make it sound like “positive growth”. The more confusion they create the better for them, which is likely why when asked, most of us fumble to try to put it into words.

Downtown Tacoma, 1958, Tacoma Public Library Archives, Richards Studio A116230-1 Every cities’ downtown is expected to be the core of its economy, a magnet to attract tourism, an example to the character of the community, and where you will find its most memorable landmarks. They also tend to be the oldest neighborhoods citywide.

The past year, without a doubt, has been challenging for every single one of us. Small businesses have had to pivot their focus from their usual operations to how to reach their consumers at home, getting a little creative, and frankly, that’s an understatement.

Updated: Jun 8, 2021 Continuing on with the celebration of Women’s History Month, we’re excited to share some interesting facts and statistics regarding women-owned businesses in Tacoma as well as the U.S.

There are several different posts on our blog alone about the health effects of gentrification, various towns that’ve experienced it, and historical impacts, but we’ve never actually broken it down more simply. Likely, because it truly is a topic that has many items to unpack, but we intend to do our best here.

The first female self-made millionaire in America is in the Guinness Book of World Records and her name is Madam C. J. Walker. She was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist born in 1867. Her parents, Owen and Minerva, were sharecroppers born in to slavery in Louisiana.

It seems to be a knee-jerk response when we see cranes and construction…” here goes another generic apartment building with a generic sandwich shop and nothing locally focused”.

We like to regularly post the feedback we receive regarding our monthly workshops so we can always look back on them if need be. This is new feedback from our most recent Business Plan In A Day workshop this February of 2021. Thanks to all who joined us on this successful day and we look forward to watching each and every one of our cohorts grow and expand their businesses!

The Forum building stands as a beautiful Baptist Church. If you’ve been to Johnsons Candy Co. (not in existence yet until 1925) you would recognize it by just walking out their front door, the new light rail track now divides the two and will soon be zipping by with passengers but both still stand strong.

Updated: Jan 27, 2021 Feedback is always appreciated, and we got some really amazing insight from our recent Business Plan in A Day workshop. Here’s what people are saying about the program.

Tacoma, Washington January 16th, 2021, we visited a few spots around the city and asked the staff how their business has been doing since Covid. Needless to say, each one is having a different experience and they truly have their own unique story as to how they’ve adjusted

Slowly but surely we are seeing some of the familiar returning to our city as more curbside store pick up options are becoming available and phases are rolling out. It even seems the roads are buzzing with more cars this past week.