The Downtown Memphis Commission has partnered with the Women Business Center South to give three women-owned businesses the support and resources to launch a physical storefront on, as a part of their “Open on Main” initiative.
Winners include:
• Tina Tilton of The Podcast Center, “a cutting-edge space dedicated to podcasting and creating audio content.” The Podcast Center will be located at 10 North Main Suite 100.
• Kristen and Lindsey Archer of ARCHd, who “specialize in creating high-quality, handcrafted goods made of wood and marble.” ARCHd will be located at 65 Monroe Suite A.
• Valencia Leonard of Oh So Sweets Skincare, who offer a “range of natural and high-quality skincare products.” Oh So Sweets Skincare will be located at 65 Monroe Suite B.
“The Downtown Memphis Commission’s Open On Main Initiative pairs emerging retailers and entrepreneurs with vacant storefronts in Downtown,” said the DMC. “The program is designed to help retailers test their market-strategies and to create a stronger retail ecosystem and better pedestrian experience in our core city.”
This collaboration offers the business owner one year of rent paid for a retail space, marketing and technical support, and other additional benefits.
Vonesha Mitchell, executive director of the Women Business Center South, said the program has operated for several years, and that the DMC has helped more than 35 retail operators test the market Downtown. Mitchell added that the DMC reached out to test a partnership with the clients of the WBC South, which are women-owned small businesses.
The Women Business Center South (WBCS) was launched in July of 2021 by the Women’s Business Enterprise Council South, a regional partner organization of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. The regional group provides women-owned businesses and entrepreneurs in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, and Louisiana with resources for their business ventures.
“Entrepreneurialism is difficult, period, but those problems are magnified when you get into looking at groups that sort of experience macro problems period, and that’s like minorities or women” said Mitchell. “We focus on trying to level the playing field for women when it comes to definitely accessing resources and so those can be financial or through the area of expertise.”
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey said that “1.15 million or 19.9 percent of employer businesses in 2020 were minority-owned.” The survey also said that 1.24 million (21.4 percent) were owned by women.
Mitchell said that women may not have access to attorneys or real estate brokers in their organic network when they are trying to open a business, particularly a brick and mortar business. This is where the WBCS works to “fill in those gaps.”
The chosen applicants were evaluated by their business proposals, their preparedness to go into a “storefront opportunity, and other technical elements.
“We want to set them up for success, so making sure they had some of the technical elements required, and just being prepared and equipped to not only run their business, but run it in a brick and mortar,” said Mitchell.
She also said they wanted to look at new concepts, such as things and ideas that had not been seen in the program previously, to give a more “diverse group” of business an opportunity.
Mitchell added that they also wanted to choose businesses that would create more energy and stimulation in the Downtown area. She said this included evaluating the ways that the applicants had made efforts to draw customers and traffic prior to applying.
The “Open on Main” grand opening is scheduled for September 7th at the intersection of Main and Monroe in Downtown Memphis.