While college students, my husband and I helped manage a small resort for several years. We experienced first-hand many of the struggles that come with keeping a marginally profitable business open in the face of well-financed chains. It ain’t easy. It takes dedication and time and commitment and lots of hard work and … did I mention dedication? As Bob Taylor, owner of Shelly’s Hardware in Sparks, tells me, an enterprising business owner has to be prepared to make some pretty stiff sacrifices.
But in terms of self-satisfaction and contribution to the community, the task couldn’t be more important. Small businesses (less than 500 employees) make up 95.7 percent of the businesses that are hiring employees in Nevada, according to the Small Business Association’s 2001 Small Business Profile for Nevada. Nearly 45 percent of the state’s workers labor for small businesses.
“[Small business] is an economic engine indispensable to Nevada’s well-being,” states the SBA report. “Small businesses are job generators and innovators.”
What does it take to turn a mom-and-pop shop into a Reno/Sparks institution? We talked to the owners of three such enterprises to see how they’ve done it.
Messing around at the Coney Island Bar
What’s Black & White and read all over?