Wednesday was National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. And Delaware Public Media’s Rachel Sawicki spent some time talking with small business owners throughout the First State this week about their experiences
From 2000 to 2019, small businesses nationwide created nearly twice as many jobs as large businesses, and have accounted for 65.1% of net new job creation since 2000.
Michael Yearian owns Fox Cleaning Services based in Townsend. His business lends itself to nights and weekends, making it an attractive part-time gig for students and retirees.
Yearian tailors the cleaning services to client needs, whether its carpet cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, or trash removal. And most of his clients are also small businesses.
But Yearian has another full-time job because his small team of 10 can only handle so many clients. It’s a game of “ What comes first? More workers, or more clients?
“Well it’s a double edged sword," Yearian says. "You have to have the business to give them in order to give them the hours they want to make money. And you can’t take on new clients if you don't have the people to actually take care of the work if you can’t do it yourself. So that is the challenge right there.”
The challenge is similar for Patricia Booth - who opened up The Red Geraniumin Middletown after she lost her job in 2017.
“Polish pottery is really our specialty," Booth says. "That’s pottery that's not something you see in a lot of stores, it's more of a boutique thing. It’s handmade, hand painted, usable art, and that's really our specialty that we have. But we also have home decor items, we have a “Guy Zone” we call it where we have gifts for men, we have seasonings, jewelry, candles, just all sorts of different lines to try to appeal to all tastes and budgets.”
But the small business ended up becoming more of a side hustle, since it didn’t make Booth enough money to live without having a full-time job.
“We don’t do a lot of events," she says. "We have a few parades and the Peach Festival but we don’t have that thing that draws the foot traffic to Main Street.”
She notes that options for parking are widely unknown on Main Street, and says more signage to direct people to free parking and maps to shops could help draw in more people.
So Booth’s storefront is open four days a week - Wednesday through Friday 10 am to 4pm and Saturdays from 9am to 3 pm. She works as a medicaid consultant the other days of the week.
Rodney Pratt’s story is not unlike Booth’s - perhaps just further along. He’s the owner of Opera House Arts and Antiques and Rodney Pratt Framing and Gallery in New Castle. When he first took over the framing business 15 years ago, Pratt was unemployed and looking for a new venture. After a few years he decided he wanted a storefront, and went back to a part-time administrative job while trying to jump start his business plans. Eventually, he had the opportunity to take over an antiques store. Combining that with his business, he was able to quit the admin job and focus on his businesses, but still has a few side hustles too.
“So I do art installations," Pratt says. "So I reached out and said “can I help you?” So you don’t have to go spend all this money to put art on your walls. How about I do it for you and then I can make that extra income for the business.”
The challenge is different for Marissa and Zack King, who opened easySpeak, a restaurant and distillery in Milford, about six years ago.
“When we opened easySpeak, it was an all in thing," Zack King says. "We put every penny of our savings plus went into some debt to get that opened. It was a make or break, sink or swim type of thing.”
So far, their heads remain above water. Their second restaurant, Fondue, just opened this week, but the work is taxing.
“People just don’t realize the work that does go into it," Marissa King says. "Everyone is so quick to say “must be nice,” or comments like that. And we do still have lives and families and we miss holidays to do what we do and it’s really hard, we’re working 16 to 18 hour days and it’s not just like we wake up and have money in our bank accounts.”
But the Kings say it's gratifying that almost every penny they make goes back into the local economy.
“When you’re spending locally, it’s generally staying here for the most part," Zack King says. "I mean with us especially, but most small businesses are living and working in their own communities, they’re dining in their own communities, they’re using local contractors, so it kind of props everybody up in the local area to support that.”
And Pratt says that sense of community is why celebrating these businesses on National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day is important. He hopes consumers remember the people behind the storefronts.
“And as far as celebrating a small business day, that right there is huge because one thing that I’ve learned when it comes to small business particular days, people, for some reason put it in their mind, on the national level, say we need to get out and support, the customers want to support the small businesses," Pratt says. "I wish that was every day."
