Local Biz Collective —
Local Biz Collective is a supportive network that helps New York City small business owners build an alliance in their neighborhood.
The Challenge
Gentrification and soaring rent increases have made it nearly impossible for New York City small businesses to stay open. The ones that are still open are barely making ends meet. They don’t have enough time or revenue to spend on new marketing strategies. To conserve costs, business owners have to wear many hats to run their establishments, which can be very lonely sometimes. They don’t have a team with which they can share their challenges or from whom they can get feedback.
How might we empower small business owners to connect and work together to help one another?
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Cornelia Street Cafe West Village, NYC, closed on January 2019 after being in business for 42 years.
Local Biz Collective is a supportive network that helps New York City small business owners build an alliance in their neighborhood. The service has two main offerings: a toolkit and a website. The toolkit offers a framework of three workshops with engaging activities that help business owners solve their biggest challenges together. The workshops help business owners collaborate and implement ideas together. The website empowers business owners to connect with others near them, schedule workshops, invite others to join their group, and download the toolkit. With these tools, business owners can work together to co-address the obstacles of their industry.
The Solution
Local Biz Collective | Website
Local Biz Collective | Toolkit Materials
The Impact
The toolkit has been piloted with business owners in the Lower East Side and West Village in New York City. This project has received great feedback from participants and has helped them improve their businesses together. The West Village group continues to meet using the toolkit to create a shared marketing strategy and a local business alliance.
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West Village local business owners during a workshop of Local Biz Collective in January 2019.