By the Bootstraps

My favorite source of Chicago small business news, Crain’s Chicago Business, spoke to three women in Chicago’s business world. These women – Laurel Bellows, Venita Fields and Maria Pinto – spoke with Crain’s about the economy’s effect on entrepreneur’s hoping to get their stores off the group during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Bellows told said she believed the recession created new opportunities for businesses. Rents are affordable and industries are more willing to negotiate cheaper rates, where they may have been less flexible in the past, said Laurel Bellows, an area lawyer.

Pinto – best known as one of First Lady Michelle Obama’s favorite Chicago designers – stressed networking’s importance during the recession.

“There are business groups and resources out there that you can afford,” Pinto said “Many people who have been extremely successful find great joy out of helping other people.”

The Kansas City, Missouri-based organization the Kauffman Foundation backed their findings. It found the country “might be on the cusp of an entrepreneurship boom, triggered by the recession, an aging population and less job security,” the Crain’s report said.

Photo credit:

Many articles talk about the idea of a good or service being recession-proof, or immune to the fluctuating economy. Booze, chocolate, video games… consumers are still buying. But one industry proving to withstand the economic downturn may surprise you; according to a Chicago Sun-Times article, the pet industry has grown by $2.2 million to $45.5 million. One woman interviewed for the article said she spent $5,000 per month on her Chihuahua and cut back in other areas to make sure she could still afford the lifestyle her beloved pet had grown accustomed to. Chicago pets are in luck – there are plenty of area small businesses dedicated to keep a pooch posh during the recession. The Google Map below highlights just six of them.

View Every Dog Has His Store in a larger map

Photo credit: “New Guinea Singing Dog,”

Once the door sign changes from “closed” to “open,” customers more or less have an idea of what goes on in the store. Sales associates or the owner themselves meet their needs, show them around the store and ring up their purchases. But what happens behind the scenes before a customer walks through the door? By the Bootstraps visited Peter Rios, executive chef and owner of Alliance Bakery in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood to find out. (What can we say? We have a sweet tooth.)

Everyblock – one of the best examples of hyperlocal news content online – has been acquired by MSNBC.com. The deal went for “several million dollars,” according to Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal, but the true amount remains undisclosed.

The Web site acts as a local news and records aggregator for 15 cities in the country. Created in 2007 by Adrian Holovaty, a Chicago-based programmer/journalist, Everyblock allows users to find out what’s going on in their neighborhood by entering their address, zip code or neighborhood. From the minutiae (apparently there have been 2 bike racks installed in my neighborhood since 2008) to crime reports, Everyblock covers your area in a way local news can’t. read more »

In recent years it seems as though the Second City’s meat and potatoes past has given way to a “foodie” present. Industry professionals and connoisseurs are making room on their dance cards for a number of delicious and innovative restaurants in the city.

Our new found role seems to have trickled down to small businesses: various restaurants and stores offer cooking lessons to customers. For example Andersonville’s The Wooden Spoon sells high quality cookware in the front of the store but in the back you’ll find a full scale kitchen setup, with a half-moon countertop set in front of the stove for easy viewing and demonstration. Students leave each class having made at least three dishes they can replicate at home. During the August 21 “Grill and Sip” class, chefs-in-training will learn how to make mini chicken sliders with Asian slaw and orzo with shrimp and vegetables, just to name a few. Class prices range from $65 – $85.

The Wooden Spoon’s class schedule is online and the Chicago Tribune has compiled a list of over 150 options available throughout the city.

Photo Credit: “Cooking in a Pan”

The Wooden Spoon
5047 N. Clark Avenue
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 293-3190

A proposed ordinance could run a fledgling business out of town before it even gets started, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

Chicago wants pedicabs – rickshaws operated by bicyclists – to “display a rate card, license number and the pedicab company’s name and phone number,” the article said. But if the ordinance goes through, there would be little space for ads, the lifeblood of the business, says Julia Samuels, co-owner of Chicago Rickshaw LLC along with partner Rob Tipton.

Ads displayed on the 20 pedicabs Chicago Rickshaw rents out pulls in $150 per day, Samuels says, “real money I can count on.” Without this steady stream of income, Samuels said the business can be put out of business in months.

Tipton – who also co-owns Mr. Rickshaw LLC in New York City – said the business would have to pack up and move to a different city if the ordinance went through. If they move, the business would take a number of jobs, and a solution for traffic congestion in the city, along with them.

Photo credit: “pedicab”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chainsawpanda/ / CC BY 2.0

Wicker Park area boutiques large and small will gather to support Dress for Success Chicago, an organization that provides professional dress to disadvantaged women trying to reenter the work force. This Thursday between 4-8 p.m., check in at clothing boutique Tangerine (1719 N. Damen) to begin an evening of shopping and service. Tickets are $30 for non Young Executives for Success members and all purchases from participating stores are 15-20% off.

In an earlier post, By the Bootstraps spoke with Mari Luangrath, owner of Foiled Cupcakes, a cupcake delivery service based out of Naperville. Mari did a great job speaking to us about how her business has used social media to grow, but there’s more to Foiled Cupcakes than just Facebook and Twitter.

read more »

The dog days of summer were typically the time small businesses across the nation would unwind. But thanks to the recession, more businesses are taking what used to be their vacation time to plot for future success, according to an article on Breaking News 24/7.

The slow days of July and August have always given small business owners an opportunity to tackle some of the chores that may get a lower priority the rest of the year, such as installing new software, painting the office or writing employee manuals.

It would appear from this article, taking a break during a recession is tantamount to losing your competitive edge. As many of the small business owners I’ve spoken to remind me, owning and running a store is a 24/7 job. The article says that since there are some positive economic indicators hinting that we may have passed the worst of the Great Recession, many businesses are using this time to act like the ant from the fable and store for the winter. Smart idea considering loans and outside capital, , are hard to come by.

Photo credit: “vacation cliche”

Now more than ever businesses are experimenting with social media to build a loyal customer base during the recession. By the Bootstraps spoke with Mari Luangrath, owner of Foiled Cupcakes, a cupcake delivery service based in Naperville that has a solid social media presence. The business delivers cupcakes to Chicago and the west suburbs. Within a few months of its opening, the store has more than 2,900 followers on their Twitter page and more than 600 fans on their Facebook page.

Just how does Luangrath use social media for her business? Listen to our conversation, or read the transcript below.

By the Bootstraps (BB): What drew you to Twitter?

Mari Luangrath: I have a college friend who was on Facebook and he kept tweeting and I said what is this? [laughter] We did a quick Facebook chat and he said you need to get in touch with my friend. So he put me in contact with his friend whose name is Adrian Dayton and we had a 30 minute conference call and he said, “You need to get on this.” And I got on and I said, “I don’t know what I’m doing. I have no idea what I’m doing.” And then about a week later I still had no idea what I was doing, but I had people following me and excited about cupcakes.

BB: How do you use it?

ML: My personal reason for using social media is just to reach out to people and develop relationships with them. I certainly don’t use social media strictly as a selling tool and I certainly try to balance out the whole personality of our brand along with some information about what we do and making it fun and keeping it exciting. I would say what we do is just a mix of relationship building and interaction with our consumer.
read more »