Efforts to Adapt Start to Pay Off for City’s Small Businesses

Posted on 02. Dec, 2010 by Emily Lavin in Uncategorized

In his 40 years as owner of Jib Lanes bowling alley, John LaSpina has seen several recessions come and go. But the most recent economic downturn was the toughest one yet.

In an effort to drum up business, LaSpina began frequenting the stores and restaurants near his five bowling alleys in Queens, Brooklyn and on Long Island, giving them free game coupons to hand out to their customers. This past summer, in the afternoons, he offered games for $1 instead of the normal price of $4.50.

“I’ve rarely discounted and done incentives as much as I’ve done in the past two years,” LaSpina said. “We’ve been really aggressive about it.”

His pro-active attitude brought results.

“Business is stable,” LaSpina said. “We haven’t seen any real decline for over a year.”

When the recession began, many of the city’s more than 200,000 small businesses were forced to adapt as New Yorkers scaled back on spending to cope with the economic crisis.  Some, like LaSpina, offered discounts to draw in customers. Others cut costs or cultivated a niche in the market. Now, after three years, their efforts appear to be paying off – those who were able to stay in business are starting to believe the worst is behind them.

According to the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey, consumer confidence is growing steadily; consumer spending has increased each month since June of last year. New York City continues to add jobs at a faster pace than the rest of the country – added tk jobs through December and economists predict the city will add around 60,000 jobs in 2011.

That optimism is especially good news for the city’s small business owners – customers have been hard to come by in recent years, even for businesses with longevity on their side.

“I’ve been here for 10 years, and I have loyal customers, but loyalty doesn’t mean nothing if people don’t have jobs,” said Idris Conry, owner of Abu’s Homestyle Bakery in Brooklyn.

Many established businesses found creative ways to cut costs as regular customers tightened their wallets.

“I basically got rid of my towel service, started doing my own towels,” Cross said. “And I told the cleaning lady I would do my own cleaning of the salon.”

Other owners focused on carving out a niche and sticking to it. Konstantina Georgiou owns Brooklyn Junior, where she designs and sells children’s clothing. When she moved the business from her apartment to a Fort Greene, Brooklyn storefront a year ago, she decided to do focus on things other stores don’t. That included setting up a space in the store where people could view the design process.

“We’re not competing with big stores,” Georgiou said. “We have our own products, we make our own products, and they’re unique. Customers love what we’re doing and they come back.”

One thing small businesses didn’t do to make it through the crunch was rely on support from the city – and most don’t expect that to change this year.

Last year, the city came up with 14 measures to improve their relationship with small businesses – including establishing an owners bill of rights, translating regulation guides into easy-to-understand language and establishing a web site where owners could go for information about different rules.

“Our hope is that small businesses will begin to look to the council and the city for help and as a resource rather than an enemy,” said Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

But most owners say they’re still waiting to see any real change. And meanwhile, the fines, fees and headaches keep coming.

“For the first time in my life last year, I really thought about maybe trying New Jersey, seeing if we could sell the place I have here,” said James McBratney, who owns Jimmy Max restaurant on Staten Island and is the head of the Staten Island Restaurant Association. “I can’t imagine any other place being more regulated than this city.”

Still, most of the city’s business owners aren’t letting their skepticism of city support stop them from planning for the year ahead. Many are starting to undertake renovations they’ve put off for the past few years, while others are starting to feel confident about putting together business plans for long-term growth.

And some are feeling even bolder.

“We’re definitely looking to hire people, change locations, get a bigger space,” Georgiou said. “I started out at a difficult time, I know that if I’ve made it this far, there’s only growing from here.”