McKenzie Fleeman
mdf001@marietta.edu
While most students were away on Winter Break, Marietta’s social media went wild with discussion of a “Small Business Revolution.” I wanted to do a little more research to determine what exactly the Small Business Revolution is, and what MC students may have missed out on during Winter Break.
I spoke with Sarah Arnold, Founder and CEO of Clutch MOV, a lifestyle publication in the Mid-Ohio Valley. She directed me to an article which had already been posted on www.clutchmov.com, to get the basics about the Small Business Revolution.
Arnold writes in the original article that Marietta was named a semi-finalist in the Small Business Revolution on Main Street competition on Nov. 15th, 2016. The stakes are high, the competition began with 14,000 nominations, as the grand prize is a $500,000 makeover and an 8-episode series on Hulu that will premier in 2017.
Small Business Revolution was founded by Deluxe Corporations, and the Main Street portion has a goal to seek out America’s most inspiring small towns, according to their website smallbusinessrevolution.org.
Laura Pytlik, owner of Wit & Whimzy, a downtown boutique that sells USA made products, is the person who nominated Marietta for the competition.
“I learned about the Small Business Revolution when a post about it showed up in my Facebook feed. Curious, I followed the link to see a contest that will award $500,000 to a deserving town and its small businesses. I nominated Marietta by completing a short survey and explaining why Marietta is special and worth their consideration,” Pytlik said.
During her research, Pytlik watched the Small Business Revolution series about last year’s winner, which was Wabash Indiana, and realized just how big of an impact it could have on the community.
“Not only does the SBR team (sponsored by Deluxe Corp) help the winning town with its physical appearance and revitalization, it also selects six individual small businesses to help. In Wabash, those businesses received expert help in branding, social media, marketing, physical improvements, and more tools to help them succeed,” Pytlik said.
In the submission, Pytlik described the charms of Marietta as well as some of the hardships Marietta has faced, including a decrease in tourism and vacant buildings that the town hopes to see occupied.
Perhaps the reason that social media went wild over Winter Break was due to the fact that the Small Business Revolution team was in Marietta, filming for the series and experiencing Marietta for themselves according to Marietta Main Street’s website.
There are 8 towns left in the competition, and voting begins Feb. 9th and will continue through Feb. 16th. To get details on the voting process, click here:
http://www.mariettamainstreet.org/blog/2017/1/17/a-how-to-guide-to-win-500000-for-marietta
“We encourage everyone to use the #MyMarietta hashtag and share why they love Marietta, what makes Marietta special, or what this competition could mean for our community. The Small Business Revolution Team is monitoring this hashtag on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to get to know our community – it’s a great way for us to share the beauty of our city with the rest of the world,” Arnold said.
The winner of the competition will be announced Feb. 22nd.
“Regardless of the results next February, we can all be incredibly proud of our community for being recognized on a national level as an outstanding downtown with an active Main Street program – and that alone is worth celebrating!” Arnold said.
