A new Hot Coffee Series, hosted by Plant City Main Street, will help local businesses prosper in the revitalization of downtown.
Plant City Main Street has kicked off its new Hot Coffee Series, which will allow businesses the opportunity to learn how to make the most out of their prime real estate and blossom along with the shifting community.
The new series is held the fourth Tuesday of every month at Krazy Kup from 7:45 a.m. to 9 a.m. Jane Waters, executive director of Historic Plant City Main Street, said part of her group’s responsibility is to offer development programming, like retail marketing or small business finance, to local businesses.
The coffee series will feature a new topic each month, which has been specifically tailored to what Waters has learned are some of the more pressing issues regarding local businesses. She said it will help both new businesses and long-standing establishments adapt to the changing Plant City community.
“Most of our stores open at 10 a.m. and when they are done at the end of the day they are finished,” Waters said. “This was a convenient time of the day to get enough information to get them started. This is a topic, not a full lesson. It’s not a full workshop. It’s a snapshot of where we are and will help give businesses the tools they need to take those next steps.”
Unlike many of the endeavors of Main Street, Waters said the Hot Coffee Series is not technically about unifying the downtown merchants. Instead, she hopes it will give all local shops the tools they need to catapult their business to success.
The first meeting was April 24, where experts discussed Success in Downtown Retail: A Vision of our Future. Carol Minor, center director for the Small Business Development Center of Hillsborough County, talked about the resources available to local businesses and discussed the classes and workshops coming up that would feature experts on specialized subjects.
Plant City Community Services Director, Karen Collins, and Frank Trunzo, owner of Krazy Kup, and more formed a panel that answered questions from attendees. After the hour was up, all stuck around to answer any other questions from those wishing to delve deeper into the subject.
The events are planned out through January and will feature topics like the benefits of creating an online store, how to engage customers with a storefront, how to access grants and manage cash flow and how to best accomplish target marketing.
She said the City of Plant City has been a dynamic supporter of Main Street and is on board with the dream of helping all local businesses prosper in the coming age of Plant City.
One of the main changes Waters said she would like to see come out of the series is a push toward technologically advancing local merchants. She said Facebook is simply not enough to drive a continuous and loyal crowd to one’s business. She said every shop or business downtown should have a website, online shop, Etsy account or some other form of online interactive experience available for shoppers.
“Nothing is beyond your capacity with technology downtown if you’re 18 or 80,” Waters said. “I’d love to see every store have an online presence that’s unique to them. Some of our younger business owners get it and some others are just getting by. There’s so much potential here and I can’t wait to see it be unlocked.”
Members of Main Street and the Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce can attend for free and non-members are asked to consider a $5 donation for the event.
“It’s so important our downtown retailers know how important they are to the success of the revitalization,” Waters said. “Our downtown merchants more than anyone else in our community have to understand how important it is that we want them to be successful.”
