[OMS_MANAGERS] Pop-up businesses

Fri Sep 28 12:35:45 PDT 2018

Hi all. Pop-up businesses are a great way for microenterprises to get their sea legs before they commit to a brick-and-mortar space (not unlike food trucks and restaurants).  Most people don’t think about it, but hair salons are a great example of tiny business incubators that give mini-microenterprises an opportunity to get their product out to the world. Becky McCray of Small Biz Survival has great ideas about this kind of thing.  It’s not unusual to go to a hair salon and see someone selling jewelry, another selling paintings or cards, a third selling mittens or scarves. You get the idea.  You might ask hair salons or similar businesses how they manage their pop-ups.  Cooperative art galleries and farmer’s markets often have similar arrangements that you might be able to emulate.

Secondly, you can encourage pop-ups within your existing retail environment (i.e. chocolate maker in a flower shop, ceramics artist in a clothing store or restaurant, jam maker in a grocery store or vintage shabby chic store, etc).  Just about any combo will work if the existing business owner/tenant is willing to give it a try.  It expands and enriches your retail presence downtown while making it simple for mini-microenterprises to test their markets and see what it might be like to run a small business in your area.  And it builds a great collaborative atmosphere.  Think of things like not only renting booth space, but renting tabletops, a bookcase or shelf, etc.  If you have any local trash-to-treasure stores they often rent small spaces of various sizes and could weigh in on what the expectations are for their vendors, the kinds of agreements they use, etc.  Think about what your goal is with this concept and then make your decisions about how to frame it – to fill up an empty space temporarily so the downtown looks good over the holidays, make a little money, showcase some home-based businesses, encourage vendors to “test” their retail market with your downtown area, get as many lively vendors in there as possible for a short time, etc.  If you decide you want money from them, you will usually be best off settling on a rental fee rather than trying to collect a percentage of sales (the latter can always be challenging).  And remember that sometimes less is more. How often do you want them to be open?  Maybe on your normal busy days of the week? Saturdays only? Every day? You get the idea.

If you go for filling up an empty space be sure to make the windows look inviting a la the Main Street suggestions (lots of holiday lights too so it looks beautiful even when it’s not open), make sure it’s merchandised nicely inside (do you want rows, collections of vendors, places for people to sit and chat, etc?), and market it like crazy.  Perhaps even consider throwing some kind of downtown party to kick it off so other shop owners can see what’s in there and can send shoppers downtown.  We usually focus on getting visitors or locals downtown, but forget that the retailers benefit from getting time to connect too. Even donuts and coffee before most stores open would work.  Inside the space think of engaging all five senses – can you get music in there?  Any good smells from candles or food or coffee that you can introduce?  Is there stuff for people to touch?  Is it visually appealing?  Is there anything to eat or taste?  A wine-tasting can also be a draw later in the day.  Empty storefronts often feel really empty and kind of dead, and you won’t get the vibe you want if you just throw a few tables in there and turn on the lights.  Anything you can do to make the space appealing will be a big help to everyone.  You might even have vendors or downtown retailers who have stuff for sale that you can use to decorate.

In historic downtown Stayton, one of our local business owners purchased a former department store, built some small stores within it (think Italian village), and then encourages pop-ups on Saturdays. I don’t know what they charge or how successful these businesses are, but this couple rarely moves forward with something unless it makes financial sense for them.  You might try talking with Jon and Teri Mesa, either at Moxieberry Café in Stayton (Jon) or at Marketplace at The Grove in Stayton (Teri).  You can find their info on Facebook, through the Stayton Sublimity chamber of commerce, or Dan Fleishman in the Planning Dept may have their contact info.  The phone # for Moxieberry is 767.2233.  Try to avoid lunch hour if you call Jon directly at the café.  Teri is open to texts too.  At the café, a local fine artist has his artwork all over the walls, adding nice ambience for the café, giving Jon and Teri great decorating without costing them a penny, and providing a great space for this artist to get in front of people who might like to buy his artwork (this is one of our nicest cafés, people who go there have money, they might buy his stuff. You get the idea).

I love the info from the South Dakota program too. Any business help you can provide to these folks will be great. In our world we run a free, confidential, one-on-one consulting service that is open to any business, aspiring entrepreneur, organization, or group.  It’s also a collaborative model, which helps encourage the kind of cross-pollinating you need in a retail area to make it so wonderful that visitors and locals want to hang out downtown and spend their money : )  Your Small Business Development Center may be willing to do a mini-workshop for these folks as part of their “entrance” fee, or you may be able to run w/ some of the info in the South Dakota program.

Hope that helps a little!

Allison Ford McKenzie
503.871.5188

From: STUART Sheri * OPRD 
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2018 2:41 PM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers 
Subject: Re: [OMS_MANAGERS] Pop-up businesses

Attached is a good article on pop-up projects, a sample application from a project in Delaware w/a sample timeline to implement this type of project. 

From: OMS_MANAGERS [mailto:oms_managers-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Elisa Joy Payne
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2018 10:20 AM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers
Subject: [OMS_MANAGERS] Pop-up businesses

Has anyone helped pop-up businesses get setup in your district? We have three prominent retail spaces that are going to be vacant through the holiday season, and are trying to figure out the best way to activate them, while holding off the landlords from impulse decision making when it comes to tenanting.

We are considering actually renting one of the spaces ourselves and setting up a market with artisan food. We have one producer that is willing to be the manager in exchange for free rent. Everyone else will be charged fees by the space they occupy and have to commit to some staffing responsibilities. Lots more logistics obviously that we are working on, like contracts, POS, and insurance. 

Thoughts?  Constructive advice?

Elisa Joy 'EJ' Payne

Interim Executive Director

Hillsboro Downtown Partnership

503-640-6145 | www.hillsborodowntown.com

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