Columbus’s beanstalk of small businesses hasn’t fully sprouted yet, but its farmer, Timothy Wolf Starr, hopes it will soon become giant.
The Small Business Beanstalk, founded Sept. 21, 2009, is an organization dedicated to the growth of small businesses. The organization encourages consumers to support local businesses through the use of free community cards — small key chain scanner cards, similar to grocery store cards — that offer customers discounts at member stores.
Cardholders can receive discounts at more than 50 shops in the Short North, and discounts are also available in Gahanna, Clintonville, Worthington, Grandview and Dublin. Hounddog’s Pizza, Haiku, the Gateway Film Center and Piece of Cake are a few of the shops that offer freebies and discounts.
“As a student, I’m on a strict budget,” said Holly Beach, a fourth-year in strategic communication. “I usually use the card at my favorite dining place, Spinelli’s Deli, because I can get a free drink and side with my meal.”
Starr, founder and president of the organization, attended Ohio State for a year and a half, but he left to venture out into the entrepreneurial world.
He was involved in many different start-up ventures, including owning a restaurant and bar. Mostly stuff to get my hands dirty with, Starr said.
As a small business owner for 10 years, Starr realized that small businesses need to work together to compete with bigger businesses and keep money in the local economy.
As matchmakers for their business members, the organizations’s employees, who call themselves “farmers,” help connect small businesses seeking services to other small businesses through social networking and marketing.
The Small Business Beanstalk began as a service organization for business-to-business organizations, but Starr and his three business partners soon wanted to incorporate consumers into the equation. “It’s the consumer who starts the whole business cycle in the first place,” said Charles Erickson, director of development for the organization.
The idea of the community card came when I went to an OSU game and was walking down Lane Avenue and saw everyone in bright red shirts, Starr said.
“So the question came up, ‘OK, how do we get all these people to shop local?'” Starr said.
The point of the community cards is to provide the average consumer with incentives to shop locally by offering deals or discounts at small businesses, Erickson said.
Not only were the cards meant to drive customer traffic to local businesses, they were also created to increase awareness of the economic, social and environmental effects of buying locally.
“Shopping local is a very important step in a much larger process of creating stronger, diverse, unique communities,” Starr said.
The cards also encourage shoppers to try new stores in the area.
“Students coming from a small town might not be aware of different stores available to them,” said Heather Ziegler, an organization member and co-owner of What the Rock?!, a clothing store in the Short North. “The discounts get them to go out and see new things instead of just the malls they’ve been going to.
“You can go to chain stores anywhere, but you’re not going to find the kinds of things that are in all the little stores in the area.”
The organization has close to 300 small-business members, and it adds four to five new businesses every day. More than 10,000 individual consumers carry community cards, and President E. Gordon Gee signed up for a card at the Short North Gallery Hop on April 3, Starr said.
Despite its success, the organization struggled at first, like many fully self-funded companies. Starr and his partners scrapped for food, ate Ramen noodles and weren’t able to pay themselves for six months.
For those interested in starting a business, Starr said it’s important to be flexible.
“It’s very challenging if you go in acting like you know how things are going to be,” he said. “You’ll always disappoint yourself.”
Community cards are free and business memberships cost $500 a year, “which is less than a page ad in most newspapers,” Starr said.
With the low membership fee, it would seem the organization wouldn’t make much profit. But because of its fast growth in the community, the business is starting to experience financial success.
“We’re projected to be completely cash positive in about 60 days, which is amazing for a start-up,” Starr said.
The organization is trying to conquer all of central Ohio by next year and all of OSU’s campus by September. Starr said the company is going to do a big push at OSU during the next Welcome Week.
“Even though OSU feels like its own community, all OSU students are part of the Columbus community,” Beach said. “If we can help out in any way, we should. This is a really easy way to help out because it rewards us with cheaper prices.”
Community members can sign up for the community card for free at thesbb.com/signup. OSU students who register for a card this month will be entered into drawings for free movie tickets at the Gateway Film Center.
