Episode 93: Marion's GEM, Sanford's RISE
One of Municipal Equation's favorite topics to cover is the kind of partnership and idea-sharing that can make success easier for everyone. When the City of Marion learned about a commerce-boosting concept that seemed to work for other cities, they tried it, and it worked for them. When the City of Sanford learned about it from Marion, they tried it, and it worked for them, too. In this instance, it was two cities in separate parts of the state with the initiative to directly trade know-how, and it went so well that Sanford circled back and helped Marion with resources. On this episode, we dig into that idea-sharing, how it started, and how it all worked, joined by leaders from both cities to hear about the GEM program in Marion and the RISE program in Sanford and how they've worked with residents to create a more vibrant local business scene. Marion's GEM program Sanford's RISE program https://www.nclm.org/
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Transcript
From the North Carolina League of Municipalities, this is Municipal Equation, a podcast about cities and towns. Hello, and welcome to Municipal Equation. I'm Ben Brown. I wanna start off this episode by saying it was excellent seeing everybody just recently in Greenville, North Carolina for a truly awesome City Vision twenty twenty five. That's, you know, the the big annual conference, City Vision, the big annual conference of the North Carolina League of Municipalities, hundreds and hundreds of leadership and idea people from municipal government across the state, mayors, city council members, town managers, clerks, planners, finance folks, public safety, all kinds of people in the municipal world, made the trip for multiple days of conference activity, speakers, concurrent sessions, all kinds of information and engagement on timely topics, plus just a cool occasion for everybody in the municipal government space to see one another, re reconnect, catch up as as I enjoyed doing with everybody. In part because at these events, I get to catch up and learn about individual things that individual cities and towns are doing at the local level to solve problems and improve living. We've got hundreds of municipalities across North Carolina, meaning all kinds of ideas that percolate locally, you know, based on what's going on there specifically. And I get to hear ideas about that and what's going on, you know, while local in context. You know, these are things that might have some application in other towns, you know, different parts of the state with similar needs or similar situations. And at at one of our many recent events, before just before the conference, actually, we had a different event where I ran into mayor Steve Little of Marion, North Carolina. Marion is in the Western part of the state. Mayor Little mentioned a program implemented in Marion. It's a really cool program to help the local business scene and entrepreneurship in Marion, a local initiative that's really working out for them. It's showing success and growing business and opportunity. And then I learned about, a program in Sanford, which is the town that I live in. Turns out it's based on this program in Marion. They shared ideas. They worked together to watch it achieve success in Sanford after seeing it achieve success in Marion. It's it's I mean, this is the kind of idea sharing that we've loved covering on Municipal Equation for almost a a decade now. You know? What cool idea did you come up with, you know, for your town? How does it work? Because if it's working, this might be useful information to share with other towns who might be able to, you know, do something with it too. The name of the program in Marion is the GEM program, g e m. That's Growing Entrepreneurs Marion, GEM. The program it inspired in Sanford is called RISE, Real Investment in Sanford Entrepreneurs. Two similar programs, two separate towns, but they work together on this. So I want to talk with each town starting in Marion, on how they got the idea, you know, what it involved, how they made success of it, and how they helped another municipality that thought it could work for them too. It ends up working for that second municipality, Sanford, and then they, Sanford, end up sending resources back to Marion to support its program to say thanks. Very cool. We're gonna start off right now in Marion with mayor Steve Little. He's an attorney. He's an author with a really interesting slate of expertise in history, specifically with the North Carolina Railroad. He's a deacon at First Baptist Church in Marion as well, and he's been a mayor of Marion. He's been mayor of Marion since 2009, and that was after a previous twenty four years on the Marion City Council. And joining mayor Little for this discussion in Marion is Freddie Kellow. She has been with the Marion Business Association since 1990. She's the economic development officer for the city of Marion. In 2017, the North Carolina Rural Center named her rural leader of the year. She herself is a downtown business owner in Marion, Kellows Music, which she has owned and operated with her husband since the late nineteen eighties. So clearly, plenty of institutional knowledge between them. We're gonna hear from them now on the GEM program and what it's doing for the Marion business scene. Here is Mayor Little and Freddie Kelly. Alright. Well, first, Mayor, if you could set the scene for us, what what kind of place is Marion? If you could give us a visual and some characteristics of it that we can keep in our heads for our discussion today. Tell us about Marion.
Marion is in the perfect spot in the state of North Carolina. We are at the spot where the rolling hills of the Piedmont join with the mountains. And there is on the interstate a large uphill that we locally refer to as Old Fort Mountain, where you climb for about five miles going uphill, climbing the Blue Ridge Escarpment into Buncombe County. This is a very historic area for railroaders also because the famous railroads, Old Fort Loops, did the very same thing in the eighteen seventies with convict labor. And I can talk to you all day about that topic. But Marion has little under 8,000 people. We're the perfect size, and we are at the intersection of US Highway 70 and US 221 that goes up into the Boone area, and south down toward, Rutherford Ton and then toward Greenville and Spartanburg. And Interstate 40 is just a few miles south of town, so we truly are in the perfect spot. All around us are peaks of mountains, and we are in sort of a geothermal, isothermal bowl so that we don't get quite the level of cold weather, and we don't get quite the amount of snow as mountains do around us, but we can see them. And we can get to those mountain spots whenever you need to, quite easily. So Marion is the perfect spot.
And it's it's a it's such a beautiful area. My my sister, you know, she lives out there in the mountains, and I have some other family out there in the mountains actually getting up sort of toward the maybe toward the Northwest Corner, West Jefferson, you know, Ash County, stuff like that. But, down in the Buncombe County area, just just so beautiful and a great place for a business scene, you know, if if you wanna have a beautiful visual, cement your business somewhere. You know, Marion is a is a a beautiful place to do it. And we're gonna talk about the the business scene today. What I wanna talk about specifically is the GEM program, Growing Entrepreneurs, Marion. Freddie, what what is the GEM program, and what does it do?
The GEM program was created out of necessity because we really wanted strong, thriving entrepreneurs, having locally owned businesses in the downtown and in our community. The heart of any community is the downtown. I refer to it as our living room. It's where everybody comes together. And we were having a serious problem coming out of the February of businesses opening and not being able to sustain simply because they had no business skills, and we really needed to address that. So we learned of a program sister program in Marion, Virginia. We went up and visited them, and we took some some things that they had done and created Growing Entrepreneurs Marion. Because of where we're located as mayor Little said between Asheville and then you have the metro area of Morganton and Hickory, we knew that we needed to grow our own entrepreneurs of people who love this community, wanted to be here, thus came up with growing entrepreneurs, Marion, Jim. And, we developed this program in partnership with the city of Marion, the small business center, the Chamber of Commerce, and Marion Business Association. We had a program that we were doing, but we needed a little hook to get them to come and participate in. We put our heads together and came up with if they go through the program, they do a business plan, they open a business in the city of Marion, that we would offer them a small grant of $5,000. But there were there there were and still are conditions to those grants. They have to, fulfill their part. There has to be commitment. And we also looked at those sectors that appealed to visitors. Number one, food and beverage, retail, and then the third one is entertainment. We didn't have entertainment to start with, and it kind of, there was a lot of interest in it. So we added that because it is an appeal both to locals and to visitors. And I'm a strong believer if your locals don't love it too, then your visitors won't. So we've gotta have that love, that the community's excited about and then that excites the visitors. So that's what brought us to this. And, it's been transformational for Marion.
And I wanna build up to those successes of of the GEM program and how it's been transformational, and talk a little bit more about the background of it. You you set it up really nicely, and you mentioned that Marion, Virginia, was sort of your your sort of port of more point of origin with an idea like this and kinda learning how it works with them. How did you even learn about it to to to begin with? You know, who comes to the table with something like this? And, you know, how did those first steps get going and who was involved? Where does the funding come from? Kinda who claims responsibility for for what with a program like this?
I met the folks from here in Virginia at a National Main Street Conference, and then we went and visited. And we took representatives from a small business center, representative from the business community here, and the chamber. And that was the that that created the excitement that I got when I first saw them at the National Main Street. They came back. We worked with the city. And, the city, I think that they did this, to well, we'll see if it works. And what will we lose? So they came to the table with half of the funding. So what we were looking for was to do three a year. It said that $15,000. They came with half of the funding. And the community, the chamber, mayor and business association, tourism folks, other folks came up with the remaining 1,500, I'm sorry, $7,500 to create that $15,000 pot. And it took less than a year to for everyone to embrace that seeing that it was successful, and it was bringing in those niche businesses that we had really been looking for. The thought was, let's go out and recruit businesses to come in. That was not really an option. Businesses most small businesses are taking care of as much as they can where they where they are. They love their community. And Marion needed to grow their own that love their community too. And I think that that's been one thing that has happened here.
And Freddie has done a a marvelous job at honing that into a work of art, with a series of eight sessions overview of eight weeks, and it teaches these owners of the business what they will be facing. And just so many of them have no clue, and they need to learn this. And there's the carrot stick method, the young the carrot is out there for this $5,000 grant. Plus, it's I mean, even without the the monetary bonus at the end, the benefit the satisfaction of learning what they need to know to increase the success likelihood of their business. Freddie is the queen of marrying as far as I'm concerned with this.
Also, Ben, it connects them with like minded people. My husband and I have owned a business in Marion going on forty years, and it's very easy to get isolated and insulated into your business just keeping it afloat. And, so connecting with those other businesses, knowing that there's other folks out there that's facing similar challenges that has made a difference is also built a relationship between Marion Business Association, the city of Marion, and those businesses that we want them to succeed. So we go in. We have a relationship with them. They feel comfortable if they're struggling that we can help them. We do not have that with businesses that go that do not go through the program. So it really does create a strong foundation. I use the analogy of, if you're building a house even before you start a foundation, you have to have a plan. So we start there. Let's come up with that plan. And even though it may change over time, just like a house plan will, start with the the foundation. You don't build the roof first, start with the foundation and get those things in order to build that business and to grow that business. It's been, very, we're finishing up a class right now, and these people don't know what they don't know. And so their job is to help them focus on the business of their business. We use that phrase over and over and over because when you bring a group of people together, they have different business mock things that they wanna do. But the basics are the same. They have to know what their tax responsibilities are, their legal responsibilities, the importance of marketing. They cannot run a business without marketing. They need to know, find have a sense of financing. It may not be their strong, but they need to understand the basics of it. So we spend a lot of time on that, making them aware of those things that make up the building blocks to start that business. We tell them very honestly, this is just the beginning. We could spend weeks on developing, a a stronger business plan. But the goal is to give them a basic understanding and making sure that they understand that they need to follow-up in their industry to see what is, the legal and the guidelines for their particular industry.
And so putting this idea out there and having, an enticement with it, you know, people find a way to to learn about these programs. But how did you make the connection to where, equitably, you know, it I'm gonna say that word again. Equitably, you know, you get the word out there, to, you know, to different kind of groups of people who might be interested in something like this. How do you spread the word?
Well, now we don't have to spread the word very much. The classes scheduled classes fill up to capacity most every time. That doesn't mean everybody finishes because some people come through the class so this is not really what they were looking for, and that's okay. But now our biggest, source of people coming in is people who've come through the program, which has been over 200 people in the community. That's our biggest reference. I I we don't even post it on social media that the biz that we're taking that is open for registration. It's the largest by far the largest class that the small business center offers. We do it two to three times a year. We try to have 12 or 15 because we like to spend time working with individuals, getting to know them and spend time with them. Just basic things that we spend a lot of time on. It almost sounds too basic is, elevator speech and how to introduce yourself to people properly, how to shake hands properly. So it really is not just those hard skills, but it is soft skills too. We spend a lot of time on talking about business culture. What do we talk about in our business that's appropriate and not appropriate? So it's not just financing and, how to set your price, but we intermingle all that together. And how do they make a customer experience? How do they create a customer experience that it wows the customer, that that customer wants to be come back and they, are the number one pick? So we spent a lot of time on that. And probably having forty years in retail business, help hone that, and we have great support in the community.
So how long does it take before you start to really see the effects of this program and you're like, this was a great idea that we put in place?
Sometimes it's several months before they, are ready to open. Sometimes they come in, they've got a lease on a building. But we're not seeing that as much simply because we don't have available properties. We don't have a lot of those. So that's now they're having to wait on openings and properties. So when we started, pretty much could pick and choose their build their properties to where they wanted to locate, but that's not the case anymore. And, so we're just having many times, we just have to work with them. And as soon as I know that there's what they're doing, we notify them if I hear of a property that's coming available. We started this to really shore up the downtown district. It wasn't, but about three years till we ran out of available properties there. So then we moved the same criteria if they opened citywide that they could apply for the funding for the grant. And and, Ben, one thing that Freddie mentioned was she used the word transformational.
That is exactly correct. Because before we had the gym program, we had an abundance of empty storefronts. So many small towns were experiencing the same thing. And the gym program taught the potential business owners enough to prepare them that their odds for success did increase. They did come in. They stayed. Some of them are still in business after the very first class. And it's hard to find, as Freddie mentioned, hard to find an empty storefront in Marion these days. And when you do find one, it isn't empty long.
One of the things that we did not expect is these businesses wanted to own their own properties. We didn't expect that. And they started buying these properties. It took it out of took those properties out of out of town ownership into local ownership, and that too was a big catalyst of transformation.
You have so many times where there's an out of town owner who doesn't come into town very often, maybe years before between visits. And if if a tenant wants to readjust, realign, redesign the front, put in new windows, put in new doors, you have sometimes the owner of the building who says, no. You can't do that. And that's just one example of the impetus and the, encouragement for these business owners to purchase their building so they can be creative, innovative, and design something that reflects the, the excitement of their own business.
And they've learned that it builds equity for them, and it's it becomes an asset. And they've really been it's that has that also has been very, beneficial for our community. We saw a definite increase in property taxes 50 by 50%.
That that that's that's amazing. I mean, you you've and you've said so many things here that made me think about how interesting economic development is at the local level. Because, you know, sometimes, you know, thinking about it, you've got you've got the policy stuff and programs and things that sometimes come from, you know, higher levels of government. But with economic development, there's there's also, you know, uniquely the general sort of free market stuff where your location, you know, Marion, you know, it it looks great to business. It makes sense to them. And you may be more attractive than the competition or you may have some valuable local asset that nobody else has. You could do really well, but seems like, you know, it it has to involve partnerships and the perspective of different sectors. And and I I think, Freddie, you mentioned this too, what the residents think about it and what they want. I mean, you know, hypothetically, you could you could have a a good biz business in the bag that the residents are, you know, ready to boo out of town and all kinds of considerations. But local government officials from elsewhere, you know, might be listening to this and wondering maybe some nuance that you've learned, about getting into something like this at the local level. Maybe how you figured out some solutions to aspects you didn't anticipate. What what comes to mind as I'm saying all this? Maybe some information that might be helpful to another city that likes this kind of idea.
It was very basic. And it sometimes people say it's too basic, but it is basic, on learning those skills. One of the the very first session that we do of those eight classes is bring in a local entrepreneur who is very respected that talks about the rewards and challenges of having of running a business. She has been on the a business now going on forty five years in Marion. She's very well respected and loved, and they respect that, and they listen to that. We have a speaker in every class, And that, so it's not just me facilitating the class, but it's so when that speaker talks on the topic we have for discussion of that night, they get to ask questions. Then even we dig, we'll dive into that deeper. Also, Ben, it's important to realize that not everybody once they realize the responsibility of running a business, that they want to follow-up with it. And I still consider that a success because if they decide it's not for them, then they've made a good decision, and they've made an informed decision, especially when they realize how much is part of the business of their business of just bookkeeping, record keeping, taxes, payroll, take is their employees, customer relations. And and especially creatives sometimes feel like they don't that's not really what their focus is. And that's, to me, that's still a six very much a success. So we just kind of learn to bring everybody together, and see where they stand with us, and that's where we are.
And I I wanna kinda wind down by talking about another town that did take notice of what you're doing with the GEM program. And I'm talking about the city of Sanford. That's that's where I live in Lee County, Southwest Of Raleigh. They saw what you were doing in Marion. Tell us about that.
They, their chamber had, connected with our chamber of commerce, and we took a little day trip down to, Sanford and shared about the gym program. They've created their RISE program, and they hit the ground running. And it's been very successful them. They too have had good success and transformation in properties that they, needed good tenants in. And I think that that's been the key to it. It's, getting tenants into those properties that were available and are available, getting them looking better. One thing that happened just before we started the gym program is the the city stepped up the, money that they were offering for facade grants. So between these property owners coming in buying their buildings, then the city provided some monies to help update their buildings. Those were old buildings. The building the windows were leaking. They weren't, efficient, the paint, new awnings, and it really gave a fresh coat of, making their downtown attractive and welcoming.
And, you know, sometimes, something like what Freddie mentioned, the the windows, the main windows of the building, sometimes the old windows, they're they're functional, but they they just are drab, and they don't appeal visually. But when you get the new window, a a a new person into town wouldn't know it's a new window. They just say, oh, that's a nice building, and and that sort of draws people in. So some of this is subliminal. Some of it is low key, but it's effective.
It built on that foundation. Sure it is. And, we're, but it has truly, truly been a partnership.
That that that is so cool. Just, you know, to see municipalities that are in different parts of the state that found a way to work together, and the results are business scenes that are better now than they were before. I mean, that's that's pretty cool. Especially when you get to the the the sense of, like, you know, we have a a business scene, and it's going so well that it takes pride in itself, you know, when when that happens and you get the sort of ripple effects and self maintenance, and it's just it's it's such a cool thing to see. I I really applaud the idea.
Well, it's, it's been exciting to see this happen in Marion. We've, shared with it with other communities. Even other states have taken the pro the the basis of what we did. Small town in Iowa, they saw a presentation we did at the National Main Street Conference in 2020, '2, and their program won a state award. But it was based on what we're doing here in Marion, and they're sharing it in Iowa. So, it is, one of those things that is easily replicated, and it can be implemented if there's just someone who has the vision to see it through.
And now let's check-in with Sanford, North Carolina, which is where I live. Here is Kelly Laudati and Susan Gomez to talk about the RISE program and working with Marion. Kelly Laudati is the executive director of the nonprofit Downtown Sanford Inc. She has helped to create and grow so many regular events and other special happenings in Sanford, parades, things like that for the benefit of the business scene and how the community fits into it. Previously, she worked in the banking world. She's also been a public school teacher. Her career path, I guess, you could say, has been sort of, just getting closer to the community level as it goes and helping arrange things that keep it vibrant and optimistic, the Sanford business scene, the community. Susan Gomez is with Saga. That's the Sanford Area Growth Alliance. She's the Chamber of Commerce director. She was born and raised in New York and moved to Sanford in the late nineteen nineties. She worked for roughly two decades in human resources for different companies, including Tyson Foods and Caterpillar. She's been with Saga since summer twenty twenty two. We'll go to Kelly and Susan right now to talk about how the GEM program in Marion led to the RISE program in Sanford. Well, Susan and Kelly, welcome to the program. Really appreciate this. First off, this is something I could do myself as as a as a Sanford resident, but I I'd like you to to describe Sanford for us. If you could set the scene, maybe tell us what kinda city it is, where, you know, where is it, how big is it, what's the character. Give us a profile on Sanford, North Carolina maybe as you kinda both see it from your respective, positions professionally.
I grew up here in Sanford, and it is, you know, quite different from when I was a little girl here. That's for sure. I mean, I do remember the days when my mom brought me downtown to go to Hubbard's to get Strad Rite shoes. And I think that we've made a huge shift to coming back to that time period. I also remember the transformation to, Riverburch and waiting in the long lines at the Christmas holiday season to get in and out of that shopping center and what a vibrant place that was. So I've seen the transition from vibrant downtown to strip malls and malls, and back to a vibrant, and I would say probably even more vibrant downtown maybe than when I was, you know, 10, 11 years old or younger than that. So, I'd say we're welcoming. We are all about supporting small businesses because of the partnerships within our community now, and I think that that leads a lot to our leadership over the past ten years, and the development of the Sanford Area Growth Alliance and the way that Saga works with DSI and Visit Sanford. You know, we have a tourism arm that that's new to the community in the last ten years as well. So I think our leadership has had a real vision for being that open for business platform, seeing that we are in Central North Carolina, and that we have that opportunity for people to day trip here and and now spend the night. I mean, you know, we have opportunities for unique places to stay. We have world renowned golf courses here, and lots of other opportunities. So I see it's been nice. It's been exciting to watch it, and I'm happy to raise my three children here. So they are not always eager to get out of town, and I love that. I think that the opportunities are abundant. Susan, I'll let you add anything from a different perspective.
Yeah. Susan, you mentioned you're a transplant. Yeah, I have to take a look in on that. So I was not born and raised here. It's grown a lot, really. I appreciate that as well too because I see the needs in that we had and that we needed to grow in certain aspects, but it's grown in such a way that it's still that small town feel where people still know you and realizing again what a great community we are because we all support one another, whether it's, professionally in our organizations because we do collaborate a lot, DSI and TDA and the civic center and nonprofits and all the small business coming together. And even, you know, personally, we start knowing each other as family and friends. And just having that community that backs you up feels amazing. And to work in that community every day only really makes it much better.
Earlier today, I spoke with some folks from the city of Marion, North Carolina. If I say the name the the the name Marion to you as a city, why does that ring a bell for you and, Sanford?
So that was, a gift to Sanford, I would say. A couple of my board members along with, at the time, Meg Moss was the director of the chamber at the time, and Terry Brown with CCCC had discovered this program. And I believe that Pam Gordon was the DSI board member at the time that had been to a Main Street conference. And Freddie Kelo from Marion had presented about RISE, and she came back and pitched it to our partners. And everybody else felt the value of it. And a gift was born to our small business community called RISE. So the GEM was that program in Marion.
So the GEM program, growing entrepreneur entrepreneurs Marion, Sanford gets wind of that and is able to learn about it and bring the elements back to Sanford where you can sort of make your own version of it. Is is that kinda how it how it went?
They really, I mean, gave us the blueprint. They opened their their doors to us and, you know, like, Kelly said. I I wasn't here at the time. I was a previous director, but just from speaking to Freddie and, mayor Little, like, they just opened their doors, said this is what we do. And if you wanna replicate it, please do. And, thankfully, Sanford and its partners said, yes. We need this to revitalize downtown. And it has been an amazing program. I mean, we love I love partnering with it with Kelly, and Terry is still part of the program as well on the CCC side. And it's been great. I mean, it's flourished downtown. I mean, we and it started too. If you think about when it started, it started in 2020. So we all know 2020 was a really tough year. Things weren't opening. If anything, we were shut down and closing. But out of that first class, the initiative to still, you know, push it through, and four businesses opened up that are still open till this day. And that says a lot about the program. It says a lot about our community and its resiliency and its and how it supports small small businesses. So since 2020, we just graduated our ninth cohort that just, finished in March. And out of that, without counting the two that'll open up within hopefully a year, if not sooner, we've had 21 businesses open up and still remain open. And it's created over 50 jobs here for Lee County as small businesses. So it really does, to Kelly's point, show how much we support small businesses. And the community is involved in it. The, you know, community college is part of it. Everyone just pulls together to make sure that this program is as successful as it is, and it wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the community support. You know, we need the people to go to the stores to do the services, and it's been wonderful.
And I will say then, so back when this began, you know, we had just had our downtown revitalized. Right? So our city council had passed a bond. The residents of Sanford voted on the bond. So downtown had become completely gotten a renovation. Right? A face lift, and it was made inviting and pedestrian friendly. And, building owners began to develop in their properties and redevelop those, but we were not seeing we were continuing to see a turnover in those businesses. That revolving door continued to happen. So I think that when this was seen in Marion, that they thought, you know, this is a real opportunity for for us to come together to help stop that revolving door. What are our businesses missing that we can captivate them in a short session to help them grow their businesses? Right? If they're already in business, how do we because we accept people that are already in business at times, you know, or we accept people that have a dream and and hope to open a brick and mortar as well. So I think that that was the real belief, and that was the buy in, I I I would say, for the city council on top of that because, you know, they're the ones that invest, and give DSI the funds, the grant money to give back. And then Saga invest in a different way from it and CCCC. So we each have our role as far as how we contribute to the program. But I would say city council really felt that need to invest in the entrepreneur on how to help them be successful and continue that success from year to year.
And the the number of of people or businesses that have that have come through and have actually, you know, been able to to stay on their feet afterward. I mean, that that's that's a lot to talk about. How let's just say, just in describing how it works, let's just say I'm a Sanford resident. I have a pretty good idea for a a good or a service. I don't know a whole lot about, you know, money, the finances, the business plan, all that stuff. Is is this the kind of thing that I could maybe bring my idea to and say to you guys, how could I possibly make this a reality? You would help me in that quest? Or how does RISE, like, actually work? That's that's actually the whole premise of the program. So the program is actually an eight class program.
You're commit you commit to come into these classes twice a week. So, normally, they're Monday and Wednesday. They're in the evening because a lot of our, entrepreneurs or wanna be entrepreneurs have full time jobs and they work. And this is kinda like you said, a dream or a vision for them in the future. So they have to commit to eight classes from six to nine, Monday and Wednesday for, you know, about a month, you know, four to five weeks. And in those sessions, every session has a topic. So we start with zoning and planning. Next one will be real estate insurance, you know, all those, you know, marketing, finance, all those little tidbits of information that you need as an entrepreneur to know what it is to open up a business. And then they're facilitated, by Terry Brown, and she also teaches them, through these in those classes, they also have time to build their business plan. So the goal is at the end, that dream that you have will become an actual business plan at the end of those eight that eighth class. And then that at the end of that class, you know, the participants choose to present it or not to the committee. So you don't have to present your business plan at the very end. However, if you feel like you want to and you wanna be part of that grant that, you know, you could win, then you present it. And then that committee, we're present. So Terry, Kelly, and I are present, but we won't we don't vote, obviously, because it's kind of our program. But the committee hears out the business plan, then they choose which one of those plans is, you know, most viable. You know, we'll be able to open up within that year because that's part of the grant, requirement, and then a winner is chosen. And just to clarify, so we've had nine classes, and we've had, I wanna say 10 or 11 winners of the grants, but we've had 21 businesses open. So just because you didn't receive the grant doesn't mean that you don't succeed. You know, the grant, of course, is a plus, and it helps you as far as reimbursing some of your expenses. But the program itself is geared to help you as an entrepreneur, not necessarily just win the grant. That's an added bonus. So the class is for you to learn all those little aspects. And it doesn't end, at the at the eight, you know, eighth class. Terry Brown, Kelly, and I are always here for resources and to help. So a lot of them, you know, will walk away and say, yes. I'm ready to open up a business. And some of them will walk away and say, you know what? I I might need a little bit more time or I might need a little bit more information and help, and that's what we're here for. So that network to support them is here always.
So you have resources. You can help people. How does the community get word about this to begin with? How do you spread the word around about how this works and the potential?
We do advertise for this. So, Susan has actually and I printed it, but it's not in color here. So Susan and her team actually created a flyer last year with a QR code. It's very accessible for that. So all three of us. So we take that same flyer, so we're marketing the same thing, and we share those on our social media outlets. The Chamber part of their mission and their MOU, I guess, with this is to do some advertising for us, and so they put that in the newspaper. And then Terry Brown does a great job of putting it through the small business center. So the link is always open for you to apply. And some people like, you know, it never fails that we end a cohort and somebody's like, oh my gosh, I missed applying. But they'll, they'll go ahead and apply right now. Right? And we might not do another program for six six months or so. So it's always open on the Small Business Center, CCCC's web page that you can do that and fill it out.
And then like Central Carolina Community College. That's right. Yep. Yep. And so the other part of, you know, marketing it and how do people know about it besides us really amping up the marketing during, you know, application open process, once those businesses become available, you know, we'll do a ribbon cutting. You know, the the winner part of besides the the grant, they get a one year membership to the chamber. And the goal is for them to have ribbon cutting and let the word out that they're in the community. And then, last year, we created also a Klingon for their, storefront that says Rise. So that way people know that they're entering and supporting a business that went through the RISE program. So we're doing a lot of collaboration once we realize, like, wow, we have 21 businesses. Like, that's amazing. And we so people should know, that they're walking into that boutique or into that yoga studio and they were a participant and this is a business that they're supporting. So all those little things help and, making sure that the community is aware that these entrepreneurs are out there and that they've made it through this program. And, you entrepreneurs are out there and that they've made it through this program. And here they are being part of the business community. And it's wonderful.
So what what I really like is when different municipalities or different communities have ideas that they can share, they can scale, they can kind of adapt to their own uses or, it it's it's it's really, really cool to see. What's even cooler is what you guys ended up doing, with Marion, where you guys ended up helping to fuel what they were doing as a I I guess a way of saying thanks. But what could you could you talk about that? You guys made a donation.
Chamber did that. Yes. That song
We did. So we all know about hurricane Helene and how, obviously, the devastation and everything that they've, suffered up there. And we really always, you know, talk about how Rise really came from Gem. If it weren't for, Marion opened up their arms to those previous directors and saying, yes. This is what we do, and please feel free to expand on it, then we wouldn't have the success stories that we have here. So when everything happened in Western Carolina and we were talking about our RISE program starting again in February, our board, made the motion to donate for the grant that they do up there because, you know, money over there right now is being used to revitalize everything from getting businesses open to having people go back into their homes. So funds, you know, have to go in so many different different directions. And this is one way to help them and one less thing, I guess, to worry about. And then, of course, revitalizing the businesses again in those areas. And so the board voted and they made the donation to fund their GEM program for this year. So it was wonderful to be able to do that and to really thank them, for what they've done for us because we've definitely, you know, have gained from their expertise. And for them, you know, they did the work. They put this program together. We just kind of renamed it and, you know, did it. But, speaking about also the success of GEM and how much we've gained here from it, CCCC, you know, obviously, here in Lee County, it also has two more campuses in Harnett and Chatham County. When RISE started, you know, we take applicants and, of course, the goal is to revitalize Lake County. We started seeing that other participants were applying from our local community, which was Chatham and Harnett County. And, of course, we we had to first give dibs to our participants here from Lee Lee County. So Terry, you know, saw that need. And so she went ahead and now they have replicated this program in their Chatham County and Harnett County. So out of RISE, here in Lee County, they created, Project Liftoff and Spark, which is the names of their two programs in those two counties because they saw the need and saw that, hey. If it's helped Lee County and it helped Marion County, it could help other counties. And so now that program has expanded. So it's just been a nice ripple effect to see how the goodness of one community to help us, and now it's expanded out. So it's been really great.
So that means another community, another city could approach Sanford and say and say, you know, we heard about this program. We like what you're doing. Could you tell us about it? I mean, it it kinda you know, it's it's the kind of thing that could be, you know, kinda passed around, spread around. And,
It's proven to work. It's not Yeah. Popular. Right. Just from the stores and the services that have been that have come from Ryze.
We didn't expand it to Jonesboro. So Susan and I went before city council not long ago because, it was a good problem to have, but we didn't have a lot of empty storefronts anymore. So I know people see those. Right? But we've had a couple of developers that have these large buildings downtown, and they're in the process of renovating those buildings. But, you know, when you talk about available space for these potential businesses to go, we ran out of it. That's how well things were going in Sanford. And so Susan and I presented to our city council about Jonesborough. You know, how did they feel about that expansion? And so since then, we've been able to give a couple of grants over there as well. So, you know, we've not only expanded to Downtown Sanford, we've given to Jonesborough, and then we've had the business professional women have granted, Susan and I and Terry a grant as well. So they believed in what we were doing and said, hey, we'd like to give you a grant, for a woman owned business. And so that then allowed us to go outside of Jonesboro and Downtown Sanford. So, you know, with the money that we get from the city, we do try to stay in Downtown Sanford and Jonesboro. But then the BPW grant allowed us to give one outside of the area to a woman. And then Terry was also able to get an additional grant a couple of years ago. Right, Susan? Yes. At Wells Fargo? Yes. And so, you know, not only have other towns seen what we're doing, but we've had, civic organizations or other businesses that have seen the value in this small entrepreneur program. And I'll say too to Freddie's credit. So, DSI, Downtown Sanford Incorporated, is 40 a forty one year old organization under the Department of Commerce with the main with the Men'see Main Street program. Freddie is one is the oldest Main Street director in the state. So not the oldest as in age. She has been a director longer than anybody else in the state of North Carolina. So she has shared the GEM program and then allowed me to talk about RISE and the partnerships that we have here in Sanford across the state of North Carolina. So Freddie and I have since presented at, Appalachian State University. They have a small cohort for very rural counties where they're doing some of this modification a little bit to try to help those development areas too. So we've had that chance. So it really is she's been such a wealth of information across the state as far as what she's been able to share with what it means to be, an entrepreneur, a small business owner, and then share that love with everyone. So
Thank you so much for being with us on this episode of Municipal Equation, a podcast about cities and towns brought to you by the North Carolina League of Municipalities online at nclm.0rg. We're a community of more than 540 cities and towns across the state of North Carolina that knows the value of the municipal level and the tremendous benefits of working together to share ideas. Our motto is working as one, advancing all. And so I'd like to hear your feedback to this episode. What thoughts this brought to mind? Does your town have a unique angle on this? Is this something you would like to try? Do you have questions? Let me know. My name is Ben Brown, and you can reach me at bbrown@nclm.org, or you can go to n clm dot org, and you can contact me through the website. Again, my name is Ben Brown. The email address is bbrown@nclm.org. Did you know that we've been doing video versions of this show? You know, we we still do the traditional audio version that you can find on Spotify and, you know, Apple Podcasts and wherever else, but we also do a video version of this podcast that we send out so you can see our our faces, and you can sort of join us in the NCLM studio, here in Downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. That's where the league is based. We've been an organization since nineteen o eight. Check us out. We've always got something going on. It was great to see you at City Vision in Greenville, and we're already at work on next year's conference, which is gonna be here in Raleigh. Thanks again for your time today. We will see you on the next one, but let's keep the conversation going in the meantime. For the North Carolina League of Municipalities, I'm Ben Brown.