Jackie Swanson of Just a Moment Canvas Images in Mentor couldn't find existing networking opportunities with other small business owners and sole proprietors. So she helped form the Small Business Initiative through the Mentor Area Chamber of Commerce

By Regina Steffen

Mentor prides itself on being welcoming to businesses that will serve the people who call the city home.

With the downturn in the economy, business people in Mentor and neighboring cities have turned to one another to weather these times and find answers to common problems. Many companies, regardless of size, are using the Mentor Area Chamber of Commerce as the venue to work together on common goals and challenges.

Marie Pecak, executive director of the chamber, says she has been pleasantly surprised with the number of chamber membership renewals and with the number of companies joining for the first time. The membership level was a bit unexpected due to the high unemployment rate.

The Mentor Chamber offers its members venues to expand their knowledge, skills and hone their business practices through networking opportunities, committee and event organizing, and many other ways. One example is a group called Coffee Contacts.

Potent cup of coffee

“It is mainly on the first Thursday of every month, and it is a phenomenal group,” Pecak says. “The members get to know one another, and then they begin doing business with each other and helping each other.”

Networking means a lot of things to people, but she says the success of Coffee Contacts was best put when one member told her that he may not find a new client, but rather identify a new resource for an already established client.

Gary Vaccariello, a long-time chamber member and owner of InLife E Cigarette & Journey Coffee, says he loves Coffee Contacts for many reasons. First of all, it is held in the morning before the work day begins, so it gives everybody who attends the chance to network informally over coffee.

Everyone who attends gives a brief overview of who they are and what they hope to get out of the meeting. For Vaccariello, whose primary business is the smokeless electronic cigarette, results have been tremendous.

In April 2009, he attended a Coffee Contact and gave his spiel about his e-cigarette. The next week he received a call from a businessman in Toledo asking for more information. When Vaccariello asked how he heard about the company, the answer was amazing.

“He told me that a member at the Coffee Contact met me and immediately called him afterward,” Vaccariello says. “We met the next week, and he agreed to be a distributor in the Toledo area. Two days later, a friend of his called me from Florida and I got five more people to sign up as distributors.”

Those business agreements wouldn’t have been made, Vaccariello says, had it not been for the chamber’s Coffee Contacts.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned since joining the chamber in 1992 is that if you want to build your business, you actually need to be involved in the chamber,” he says.

Coffee Contacts isn’t the only networking opportunity. In fact, there are at least three other groups who address the needs of specific types of business people. The chamber is home base for a Future Emerging Leaders group, Small Business Initiative and Kids Biz.

Honing future leaders

The Future Emerging Leaders or FuEL is designed to teach business people under age 40 to develop the leadership skills necessary to run companies. The Lake County FuEL began when Jeremy Sentfen, a certified public account with Rea and Associates, moved to Mentor from Medina County.

In the Medina Chamber, Sentfen enjoyed being a member of the young professionals group. When he met Pecak, they talked about starting one in Mentor. Both decided it would be best to form FuEL through the Lake County Chambers of Commerce so it was not limited to Mentor.

Since the group started in 2007, Sentfen says it has been a benefit in many ways. The group has a couple of goals, one of which to promote leadership and develop leaders through education topics that range from estate planning to inter-generational communication differences.

Although the group is geared toward business people under age of 40, Sentfen smiles when he says that members are not kicked out when they turn 41. The ultimate benefit is for these business people who will be around for many years to get to know one another.

“We can do business together, and some day some of our members might be looking for a job,” he says. “It’s a network with a lot of benefits that are centered on peoples’ jobs and careers.”

Small-business boost

Just A Moment Canvas Images owner Jackie Swanson joined the chamber after purchasing her company in 2007. Her challenge wasn’t being too young, but too small for existing networking opportunities to be relevant to her as a small-business owner.

Swanson wasn’t alone. In fact, Em Koenig of Emko Printing and Swanson worked with the Mentor Chamber to form the Small Business Initiative (SBI), a group for companies with 10 or fewer employees.

“There are so many people who are running small companies,” she says. “It’s not just me, and we all have the same issues. We have to convince our customers and clients that they should buy from us rather than someone else. It’s about relationships. I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be neat if there were a group for small business owners like me to meet.’”

Because many of the businesses in SBI don’t have any employees, Swanson calls the monthly meetings “small business therapy.” In a time when many people are being laid off, she thinks that more small companies the size of hers are being started.

SBI deals with issues ranging from the best way to establish and maintain a database to the most cost-efficient way to accept credit cards. These are not necessarily issues that will arise at networking opportunities or meetings with larger, more-established companies, Swanson says.

As a business owner with no employees, the number of hats Swanson wears is seemingly endless, from owner to worker to janitor. Members of SBI own companies that range from Web site design to candle making to financial planners. Members all belong to the Mentor Chamber.

“This really has offered me a lot,” she says. “After the meetings, you leave realizing that you are not alone. The issues I face are the same as other small-business owners face. It’s helpful to find out that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

New kidz on the block

Pat Perry of ProMark Enterprises, which produces the annual KidShow in early spring at Great Lakes Mall, was instrumental in organizing Lake Kidz Biz, aimed at companies whose target market is children and their families.

Any company that is a member of any of the Lake chambers are invited to Lake Kidz Biz meetings, but the company has to target children and families. The concept was borne out a desire on Perry’s part as a parent to get to know the companies in the area and what they have to offer.

For two years, Perry and Judy Globokar of Mouse Made Simple (a Disney travel agency) would meet and agreed that it would be wonderful to have an organization that focused on businesses whose clients are families and children. They took lead roles and formed a steering committee. Out of that, Lake Kidz Biz was born.

“The members on the steering committee found that just the eight of us were able to cross promote each other’s businesses,” Perry says.

What was a group of eight business people has grown to about 50 active members since October. “We really are creating a niche-driven organization,” Perry says.

Meetings often feature speakers, but there also are interactive sessions to ensure that people have the opportunity to talk and come up with collaborative marketing efforts. Participants in Lake Kidz Biz range from restaurants to entertainment venues to photographers to children’s activities companies and even include financial institutions.

Collaboration doesn’t just occur within Lake Kidz Biz, but with the chambers as larger organizations.
“Really, the cross promotion is assisting us and the chamber and eventually the community as a whole,” Perry says. “Although we are still in our infancy, one of our goals is to begin a philanthropic effort with our members. We would like to do something like a school supply drive. This will bring all the members together and make the organization as whole stronger.”

Regina Steffen is a Concord Township-based freelance writer who reports on Lake County cities for the business journal.

	THE BUZZ ABOUT MENTOR CONTINUES

There is a saying in this Lake County city: If you can’t buy it in Mentor, it’s not worth having. In Northeast Ohio, 50,000 population Mentor ranks behind only Cleveland in the size of its retail space, according to a 2006 regional retail survey. Cleveland had 14 million square feet. Mentor had 6 million square feet, followed by Elyria, North Olmsted and Strongsville.

As the economy struggles and as consumers buy less, how is the Cleveland area’s second largest retail hub faring? Pretty well, according to Tom Thielman, the city of Mentor’s economic development administrator.

“Certainly retail is struggling nationally, and we see evidence of that locally as well,” Thielman says. “But in our area, we still see some positive signs.”

Kohl’s department store is a regional sales leader, says Ron Traub, the city’s economic development director. The Wal-Mart store on the city’s east side is among the chain’s top sellers nationally, Thielman adds.

Thielman also points to Levin Furniture’s new multi-million dollar building on Mentor Avenue across from Great Lakes Mall. The store’s former building is being turned into an Aldi grocery store.

For several years, a strip of Route 306 had a string of vacant restaurants, with Chi-Chi’s, Bennigan’s and Ponderosa all closing. Recently, however, a Quaker Steak and Lube, an Irish pub and a 1950s-themed diner have moved in.

Despite the economy, Jeff Shibley, owner of Yours Truly on Route 615, says: “I don’t see a difference in our business compared to 10 years ago … . The community has been tremendously supportive of the restaurant. Our business in Mentor has been strong.”

It is harder, however, for small-business owners anywhere to meet increased rules and regulations regarding legal and medical issues, Shibley adds.

Kohl’s department store is a regional sales leader, says Ron Traub, the city’s economic development director. The Wal-Mart store on the city’s east side is among the chain’s top sellers nationally, Thielman adds.

Thielman also points to Levin Furniture’s new multi-million dollar building on Mentor Avenue across from Great Lakes Mall. The store’s former building is being turned into an Aldi grocery store.

For several years, a strip of Route 306 had a string of vacant restaurants, with Chi-Chi’s, Bennigan’s and Ponderosa all closing. Recently, however, a Quaker Steak and Lube, an Irish pub and a 1950s-themed diner have moved in.

Despite the economy, Jeff Shibley, owner of Yours Truly on Route 615, says: “I don’t see a difference in our business compared to 10 years ago … . The community has been tremendously supportive of the restaurant. Our business in Mentor has been strong.”

It is harder, however, for small-business owners anywhere to meet increased rules and regulations regarding legal and medical issues, Shibley adds.

Room for improvement

Of course, not all business in the city is thriving or even surviving. Mentor has some “long-standing” vacancies, Thielman says. The former Kronheim’s furniture store on Mentor Avenue is one example. City officials are working to determine how that space could be adapted for a new use.

The retail vacancy rate in Mentor has increased in some areas, according to recent city studies. There are 10 shopping centers in Mentor that are larger than 50,000 square feet. Together, the centers have a total of 2.8 million square feet of retail space.

According to a 2009 city study, the retail vacancy rate for these shopping centers was 6 percent, a 3 percent increase from the previous year. The largest vacancies were in the Great Lakes Plaza on Mentor Avenue, which had 41,600 square feet (that figure dropped to 28,000 square feet in 2010), and Great Lakes Mall, which had 37,000 square feet vacant (see related story).

Twenty-seven smaller retail spaces in Mentor range from 11,000 to 45,800 square feet for a total of 700,000 square feet. These spaces had a vacancy rate of 13 percent, according to the 2009 city report, a 2 percent increase from 2008.

The city’s overall vacancy rate in all 37 shopping centers was 8 percent in 2009, up from 5 percent in 2008, according to the report. It has remained at about 8 percent, according to the 2010 city study, Traub says.

Regional retail

Some experts say that as the retail in Mentor goes, so goes the region.

“Retail is such an important industry,” says Paul Alsenas, director of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission. “It affects so many other things” like jobs and taxes.

Even communities that believe they have stable retail should think about regional retail, Alsenas suggests, because retail development in one community affects its neighbors.

According to the 2000 Northeast Ohio Regional Retail Analysis by the Northern Ohio Area-wide Coordinating Agency, the overall vacancy rate in Northeast Ohio was 7.4 percent, which was slightly higher than others regions of this size at the time. The report called the regional retail market “saturated.” The report stated: “The region is saturated in convenience and shopping goods categories by more than 6 million square feet.”

At the time, there also were 77 square miles of vacant land in the region that were zoned for retail. If those 49,500 acres were developed, the report warned of massive retail saturation.

Alsenas would like to see an updated regional retail study. He hopes regional retail becomes a hot topic in Northeast Ohio so that local communities do not overdevelop retail areas without taking their neighbors and the region’s already available retail into account.

“We were over-retailed prior to this great recession,” he says. “We should think regionally. We ought to be coming together … . Any community can make better decisions if it thinks regionally.”

Lila Mills is a Euclid-based freelance writer who previously has written for the Plain Dealer.