(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - 'Tis the season for shopping.

According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales in November and December alone on average represent 19% or more of total retail sales throughout the year.

Small businesses in Central Illinois are competing with big-box retailers and online shopping for those dollars.

Joining me now is Carla Bobell, executive director of the Canton Area Chamber of Commerce, to talk about the importance of small businesses.

Thanks for coming on, Carla.

Appreciate it.

- You bet.

Thank you.

It's nice to be here.

- Well, we love Canton.

It is a fun, quaint, I wouldn't even call it a small town compared to some of the other towns around the area.

But tell us about the retail environment and the small business environment in Canton right now.

- Yes, I think, you know, small businesses are so important, right?

I always say that the big-box stores, we all love them and we need them because they provide wonderful job opportunities, they offer wonderful services, but the small businesses are what makes our communities so unique.

They really do.

They're the heartbeat of a community.

They're our friends, they're our family members even in some cases, that they are out there doing what they do every day and providing their services.

So it makes it just, they just make it special, and that's what I love.

I always say, when you come to Canton, I'm like, "You've gotta go to the Sweet Shoppe.

You have to go to the Sweet Shoppe," because it's a very unique store.

It's an original store that's doing the same thing it used to back in the day.

The old-fashioned, you know, soda shop and all of the candy you could ever imagine as a kid, you know?

All of that.

So those are the kind of special places that make small businesses be special.

- Now, how do you, when you're marketing Canton, and you're with the Canton Area Chamber of Commerce, so you work in Canton and around the area, some smaller towns, how do you try your best to keep the folks in the area in the area as opposed to having them drive off to Peoria or Bloomington-Normal?

- Right, which, really, from Canton, driving to Peoria is a very easy thing to do.

It's a, you know, good 45-minute drive depending on where you're going in Peoria.

But, you know, I feel like ever since the pandemic, we are being able to really train people more to think about shopping local first.

Think about, what do we have right here in our community?

Because we truly are really a bedroom community and we have a lot of people leave our community to go out and work in larger cities like Peoria and then they come back.

So that we really try to train them up to say, "Let's shop here.

You could find that here.

Let's look here first," before driving off into somewhere else or jumping online, because online is a real presence.

A lot of people are doing that.

And a lot of times you'll think, "Ah, you know what?

I wanna buy that," and you immediately just go online because it's right there.

Everybody has it right in their hands.

But before doing that, get them to think about shop local first.

Do that.

We have a little incentive that we do around this time of year, if you don't mind me sharing.

- Sure, go ahead.

- To try to help people really think.

And we've had folks from our community say, "This really made me think about staying local and shopping local before I did anything."

And so a lot of other communities may do this as well, but it's a Shop Local Bingo card.

And so you pick them up at all these different places in our community and in the little boxes, if you shop at a retail store, you write the store's name in in that box, or maybe you went to the eye doctor and got your eyes checked, or you got your car serviced, or you donated to a nonprofit organization, or you tithe at a church.

There's all the different types of memberships that we have represented through our chamber.

You write them in there, you get all your boxes filled in, you turn that in, and then you get to be put into a drawing.

And that drawing, whoever wins, they get a hundred dollars in chamber checks to go back and shop local again.

But collaboration of, because we are the Canton area, so we are taking in Farmington, Lewistown, all of these smaller towns.

They may have chambers amongst themselves, but Canton is the largest city in our county, which is Fulton County.

Very large, spread out county, and lots of little locations around.

So there are stores in those different locations.

So we can do collaboration where maybe there's a boutique crawl.

So the stores in Canton participate, the stores in Farmington, the stores in Lewistown, and one day they all say, "We're gonna be open these special hours.

Everybody come out and do their shopping."

So collaboration can be really key in helping take care of everyone in the county.

- And using those unique ideas, is that how you also draw people in from, say, Peoria, Bloomington-Normal?

- Yes, and I would say, 'cause really, you know, Canton's not on its way to anywhere.

You know, it's not necessarily in the middle of nowhere, but we don't have the interstates, which is always an advantage to have that, but we don't.

So when you're coming to Canton, there's usually a purpose for that.

And so we create those purposes for people to come.

And we do that through events mostly.

We do have a lot of people come to events throughout the year that are coming from Peoria, the Galesburg area, the Macomb area.

Events like Art on Main, our Canton Cruise-In, which has over 300 cars that come to the Cruise-In.

The Taste in Canton just happened back in September.

Right now we're actually doing the Holiday Lightshow and that's when you drive in and you get to actually watch this really amazing technologically way advanced show that I don't put together, somebody else thankfully does.

But last year was our first year to do that and we tracked, you know, cars coming through and most of the time if someone was from out of town, they would say, "We drove all the way from blah, blah, blah, you know, to come and see the show."

And then the incentive is that then they go to a local restaurant or they stop in a couple stores and do some shopping and get some gas.

So really events is what helps drive people to come on out to Canton.

We have a lovely community and our downtown is very quaint.

We're very proud of it.

- Tell me about, and let's talk small businesses, not just retail, but, you know, the US Chamber of Commerce says a small business is any business with less than 500 people.

So tell us about, you know, trying to lure new businesses to Canton.

What kind of incentives is the city or county giving businesses if they open shop?

- Yes, which is, you need to be creative to do that.

Especially, you know, we are a smaller community.

We're not tiny, but we are smaller than Peoria.

But one of the incentives that was set up for us by the economic developer that we had in our community through the Spoon River Partnership for Economic Development, they set up something called the Business Development District.

We call it the BDD.

So how it works is that, and I will, that'll get me to the incentive, is that certain districts, they would develop different districts within the community of Canton and they would charge a little extra tax on whatever was being purchased in those stores in that district.

Then that money went into a pool of funds that then were able to be given back to those businesses within that district.

So what they found out, and what has been happening, is by doing those little tax, that little extra tax, just for a period of time, not forever and ever amen, 'cause then they would start with this district, for example, they started with our downtown, then they moved to a different part of Canton and did more, and did the taxing over here, and then these folks didn't have to do that anymore.

So it moves around.

But then what this has developed is a hundred thousand dollars per month, this special tax.

So then those businesses can go back and say, "I need to replace my air conditioning and heating unit in my hundred-plus-year-old building, but doing it on my own would be extremely expensive."

So they apply for funds from that BDD fund so that they can, it can help them.

It does not pay for it completely.

I wanna make sure that's clear.

You know, it might be a 25% of the project, 50% of the project that they will help with funding that through those BDD funds.

So when it's an incentive for a new business to come, those dollars would be available if they're in one of those districts that went through that taxing part.

So our downtown, we have some buildings down there that need some love.

And for someone to come and say, "You know what?

I'd love to start a business in downtown Canton," they can apply for those BDD funds and it can help them with their project going forward.

- That sounds like a great idea.

- Yes, it's worked well.

- I wanna talk about some statistics from the US Chamber of Commerce.

They say these are some of the reasons why small businesses fail.

42% fail due to a lack of market demand.

I guess that depends on whatever product that's in your store.

38% fail due to a lack of capital.

41% have trouble filling jobs.

Let's talk about a lack of capital.

Small businesses often need a loan to get up and going.

Is our current environment with banks a good one to where banks are giving out those types of loans?

- Absolutely.

We have several small local community banks, and I guess small may be a, 'cause some of them have different locations.

But those banks have been very supportive.

In our office, we share the office with the Spoon River Partnership for Economic Development.

So we see those people coming in saying, "Hey, we wanna open up a business, and what are my steps?"

And no hesitation does the, executive director would send them to a bank and say, "You need to talk to them," and they welcome them with open arms.

But the BDD funds are going to be there also.

So I feel like collaboration, again, of everyone kind of helping out with that.

We always say with economic development, they kind of help them get started, and then as a chamber, we help them continue on and prosper.

I feel another very large challenge for small businesses especially are finding employees.

Now, I know that that's across the board.

I mean, no matter if you're a big-box store, if you are a large restaurant, whatever it is, and I think most everyone, even when you don't own a business, you notice it.

There's just not as many employees.

You know, Black Friday, you go to a major store and there's three, you know, checkout where they used to have 16 of them open.

That is a reality of, you know, the atmosphere we're living in right now.

But the small businesses have even more challenge with that because they can't offer those benefits.

Sometimes they're only asking for a part-time person.

And so I know that it's not just Canton.

No matter, you know, in travels and things, you just see it everywhere.

I wish I had a magic wand.

- Yeah, no kidding.

- You know?

- Well, that 41% that said they have trouble filling jobs, I think the number jumped up to 90% when they were asked, "Can you find qualified candidates?"

So that's an issue.

- And that is true.

And that is a, as a chamber, we take on that challenge of workforce development and trying to figure out, how do we improve that?

I don't have the answer yet, but, and, you know, we're smaller.

So the pool of people are smaller that you can actually hire.

I do feel it's a little better even from the last two years, that you're starting to see it just get just a little bit better.

An example is one of the things that the chambers do is we offer educational workshops, especially for those small businesses, because they don't have the corporation telling them or educating them about whatever it is that they need to do to run the business.

So we offer those.

Before the pandemic, when, you know, we had lots of employees, those owners could come to those.

And now because they don't have enough employees, they had to shut the store down, you know, to get to one of those.

So we've been offering more online so they could sit there in their store while they're open, you know, and maybe participate in an hour-long workshop that could help them, you know, with whatever the subject is.

- Canton had a unique challenge.

We just had the seventh anniversary of the explosion in downtown Canton at the Opera House that unfortunately not only killed an Ameren worker, but just decimated a lot of businesses downtown.

How has Canton in the last seven years recovered from that?

Or is it still recovering?

- I would say it's still recovering to a certain degree.

And that is due to the fact that those buildings I was talking about that need some love.

There were some buildings that were damaged not beyond repair that were really close by.

But some of those buildings have been purchased and they have totally put them back together and have renovated them and they have, I said as a chamber, we will always find someone to fill up, you come in and buy a building and fix it up, we'll find an end user for you.

But I feel like, you know, when a community goes through something like that, you really come together as a community.

And one of our goals is that downtown just has to continue to strive.

That building, the Opera House building was huge.

It was our jewel in the downtown.

What we're doing right now, it has been sitting empty, and one of the things that we're doing is we're now going to make it into a green space.

We are working with an organization that is helping us design that and put it together.

I think we were kind of hoping that somebody would come along and build a new building there, but it didn't happen.

So we are going to make it into a green space.

Canton's going to be celebrating their bicentennial in 2025.

So we have lots of plans to open that new green space and park.

That's going be an extension of our park downtown, Jones Park, to make that into a lovely green space for people to enjoy, so.

- Tell me about some success stories that pop into your head as being like, "Wow, this small business is on its way to maybe being not a small business."

- Yes, well, you know, and this one is kind of, it kind of went with the pandemic, but it truly is an incentive or a story that was a success story that was this close to closing and it was an incentive, it was a place that's kind of an amenity in our community and we did not want it to go away and that is our local bowling alley.

You know, there's not very many bowling alleys left.

- No.

- They really aren't.

And ones that are run well.

And it's called Linn Lanes in our community.

And when the pandemic hit, if you don't have bowlers coming in, right, you're kind of in the water, dead in the water.

- Strike out.

- Strike out.

I love that.

So they were struggling and came into our offices and said, "We just don't know if we can continue to stay open.

There's so many things that need fixed and we just, we can't afford to fix them.

You know, we were setting up these little budgets so that we could get along and fix what we needed to fix."

But when all of the grant programs came along, they were able to apply for that and they were able to get over a hundred thousand-some dollars.

And because they received that, they were able to fix what they needed to fix, people started being able to come back in, and it is a thriving bowling alley.

I mean, that place is packed all of the time now.

And to me, that was just like, it was a, you know, saving an amenity that we had, 'cause we don't have, you know, we don't have all of these wonderful, you know, cool little places that you may have here in Peoria.

So those types of amenities in our community are so important.

And that success- - You still have a skating rink?

- We do.

We still- - You can't find those anywhere else.

- Roller skating and bowling in Canton.

- Hey, what more do you need?

- Come on out.

We've got it, we've got it going on out there.

- That's fun.

- But, yes.

- I saw a statistic that in 2023, 15,000 new business applications were filed in Illinois.

And that's to me seems like it's a good sign.

- Absolutely.

- That's 12% more than the previous year.

So it seems like we've got those entrepreneurs out there.

They wanna open their businesses.

It's just a matter of where and how they're gonna find help.

And it seems like you guys have your act together trying get businesses- - We're trying.

- [Mark] Into Canton and the surrounding areas.

- It's fun to work with entrepreneurs.

It really is, because they just, they have that passion.

They want to do this business for whatever it is and they're going to work hard to make it work.

So they are a lot of fun to work with.

Yeah, I'd love to just, let's keep doing it, you know?

Because it is those small businesses that just make a difference in your community.

They just really do.

- Anything on the horizon that you're excited about as far as new businesses coming into town or new programs to help the businesses you already have that you can tell me about.

- I know, I said I'd have to kill you if I shared, no, I'm kidding.

You know, we just, there are some things that are going on, but they're just not quite the, you know, the Ts crossed and the Is dotted yet to really be able to share.

But we just, as a community, just keep pushing forward.

We've had a lot of bad things happen where fires and we've been, I think there was a shirt that said, "Blown up, burnt up," and I don't remember the saying.

- Tornado at one time.

- Yeah, there was a tornado.

Blown up maybe.

Or blown away.

Blown up.

We've had a lot of things happen in that community but we just keep pushing and keep moving forward and the incentive that we want to continue with those BDDs, the business district development, we know if we can keep pushing forward with that program, that we will be able to incentivize, you know, get in those incentives to get people to come on down, get those entrepreneurs to open up those new businesses, and continue to help Canton thrive.

- Do you have a website, people can find out more information?

- Absolutely.

Cantonillinois.org.

It's actually our city website and our chamber, the partnership, economic development, we all kind of share the same website.

So cantonillinois.org.

- Well, we wish you the best of luck.

Small businesses, they are the engine of our economy.

- Agreed.

- That's for sure.

And we love Canton, so keep up the good work.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

Carla Bobell with the Canton Area Chamber of Commerce.

She is the executive director.

Check out that website and see what all of Canton has to offer.

Now, our Phil Luciano takes us to a Peoria business, a small business, that recently got a grant and we'll show you how they're doing.

- [Phil] Raul Salazar wanted to revive a restaurant, but as with many small businesses, it needed a little help.

Salazar used to work at Richard's on Main, a long popular bar and eatery in downtown Peoria that shuttered in 2018.

This year, Salazar and his business partner wanted to get it up and running again as Richard's under Main.

- And my partner is one of the original owners of the original Richard's and we knew the concept.

We knew that there was, you know, there was a want for it, the food, the atmosphere, the drinks.

So we just felt that it was the right time.

- [Phil] But it was no turnkey operation.

They were surprised by the extent of water damage and other problems.

- We didn't think it was gonna be as much as it was.

Like, we walked in and looked at like, "Oh, this should be this, this, and this."

And then we had to come up with flooring and new light fixtures and paint and, you know, we had to fix some of the damage from the other stuff.

- [Phil] He wasn't sure how to afford all the repairs.

Then he turned to the City of Peoria.

Code Enforcement helped advise on safety and fire codes and the City provided a $17,000 commercial renovation grant.

- Basically, we would probably still be in the middle of a remodel if we were still trying to pay for it out of our own pocket.

- [Phil] Open since July, Richard's has been going gangbusters with a throwback speakeasy vibe.

- So when you have to come down the stairs on the sidewalk, it kind of takes you to a whole different time, you know, different place.

We got the murals up of the old Shelton Brothers and the, you know, Carrie Nation and the old, you know, bootlegging and stuff like that.

So yeah, we're definitely trying for the speakeasy feel.

- [Phil] The City's grant has helped create opportunities for employment and sales tax.

Plus, Richard's is helping spur a business resurgence downtown.

- I think it's on the rise.

I really do.

And I think the more people see that downtown's kind of the place to be again, or soon to be the place to be again, it's gonna help bring more people down there.

- Back here with Phil Luciano, I'm starving now that I saw the good food at Richard's.

- Great place.

And, you know, not only is it good food; it's good business.

It's one of those things, a place like that that was gone, now back.

You like to see those sort of return to business type of stories.

And we like to say that small businesses are the backbone of the economy, but that's not just like a spiritual or emotional thing.

It's economic.

And nationally, and you mentioned this earlier, that according to economic experts, businesses that are 500 workers or smaller, that's a small business.

Across the nation, it's like 32 million businesses.

32 million businesses.

And that's 99.9% of all businesses.

Now, 500 to me and you probably isn't a small business, but it goes to say there are lots of businesses that are smaller and that's what makes the country's economic engine move.

- Yeah.

And like we talked about earlier, that statistic, that 15,000, 15,000 new business applications just in Illinois this year.

- I was blown away by that.

And nationally, the year before, they had 5.4 million new business, new small business applications.

That's a record.

'Cause you look around and there's all this worry and dread and, oh, there's this, there's that, the economy and not enough workers, but still people want to go into business.

That problem of the lack of workers that you were talking about with our guest, that is a huge deal, and it's a huge deal not only because, you know, we walk into places and, boy, where's all the workers?

And we need help.

It's a matter of the owners of these small businesses, half of them last year said, "I'm working way more hours than I used to."

Wears them out.

And that's not a good thing.

But they're sticking in there.

They're sticking in there.

- Yeah, and it's good that that places like Spoon, not Spoon River, but the Canton Area Chamber of Commerce has programs to help these people because you could come up with a great product and say, "Hey, I wanna open my business," but if you don't know about taxes and, you know, all the other things that none of us think about, health insurance, stuff like that, you can go down pretty quick.

- Yeah, and they're vital, to get them started and keep them going, it's vital because over the past 30 years about in America, almost 2/3 of all new jobs came from small businesses.

I mean, lots of towns and cities want the big ones and those are great to get, but those small businesses, they employ a lot of people.

They're just so important.

- They sure are.

All right, if you could open a small business, what would you offer, Phil?

What would the key thing be at your shop?

- Man, whatever it is, it'd be where I did not have to come in at all.

Or I could sleep super late.

That sort of thing.

- I don't know if that works.

- I know, I know, I know.

That's the problem.

- The small business owners that we all know, they work a lot more than nine to five.

- That's why I look at them, whether they own a restaurant, a tavern, a hardware store, whatever, it's just like, "God bless you, 'cause I wouldn't have the discipline to do it."

- I know.

It's tough work.

So hats off to all those small business owners.

Well, we've got "You Gotta See This!"

coming up.

Of course, our second favorite show behind "At Issue with Mark Welp."

- Some would say favorite, but.

But, you know, we're coming up soon to the end of the year and I'm looking forward to our end of the year episode that we always do and it's a roundup of a lot of our best, a lot of our funnest, a lot of our most interesting segments we've done through the year.

And looking over this stuff, I'm like, "Hey, we've done a pretty decent job.

There's some interesting stuff in there."

So I'm looking forward to that.

That's coming up pretty soon.

- That's right, and we do go to smaller towns like Canton.

- Oh, yeah.

- And other places.

I know we've both been to Canton in the last few weeks working on stories that you can see on "You Gotta See This!"

coming up shortly.

And, of course, if you have any story ideas for us, we would love to hear them.

Whether it's an interesting person or a unique business or something with history, we're always looking for ideas.

You can go to wtvp.org and email us those or go to our Facebook pages.

You can make a comment or send a direct message, whatever you wanna do.

- Looking forward to another year of doing that with those fine viewers out there.

I'd love to hear from them all the time.

- All right, well, we thank you for joining us once again.

You can watch this segment again, share it with a friend.

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Hope you have a great night.

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