With a whirlwind week with visits in Tampa, Washington DC and Chicago, Noah headed off to Minneapolis for the last – and coldest – leg of the tour.
To start the day, Noah appeared on KMSP TV’s Morning Buzz with Tom Butler to discuss the top 5 tips for small business financing, alongside our customers Jack Metcalf and Jason Stevens of Fan Man Lighting.
After the interview, Noah headed over to Jason and Jack’s store in Apple Valley to get an in depth perspective about life as a Midwestern small business owner:
- On picking a location: “We recently relocated our store to an area with more foot traffic – you need to make it as easy as possible for your customers to get to you.”
Knowing your customer: “During our move, we added a children’s play area so the parents can shop uninterrupted. We know Saturdays are our biggest sales day when kids aren’t in school, so we needed to find a way to make our store kid-friendly.” - On navigating the credit crisis: “It was a tough time for us. We bought the previous owner outright before the crash and had some difficulties with our community bank. To get through it, you just need to keep working hard and focus on what you do best.”
- On being an OnDeck customer: “You just can’t put a value on getting an OnDeck loan. We’ve been able to build out our new store and create two more jobs while doing so.”
That wraps up our first Main Street Tour! A big thank-you to all of our small business participants. This tour was an incredible opportunity to meet with the men and women who make up the backbone of the U.S. economy. Your hard work drives us to continue to connect more small businesses to capital and make the experience a delightful one.
As part of the tour, we are giving $2,500 to a small business in each of the 4 cities we visited – you can learn more about our contest on our Facebook and Twitter pages.