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Shop Hardy Arkansas – Online!
In today’s tough economy small town business owners are constantly looking for creative and affordable ways to find buyers for their products and services. With Hardy, Ar. having a population just under 800 it is that much more difficult to run a profitable business.
Many of the Main Street area merchants are geared toward our tourist and travelers just taking time to pause in Hardy. But does that mean you can only make sales when your doors are open? We here at the Main Street Hardy Online website think not!
FOHA Request Starting To Happen!
When you wish for something long enough and hard enough they sometimes really do come true! When you stand strong and persist even when you feel alone, things still can come true too!
With that said, Friends Of Hardy Arkansas (FOHA) is excited and happy to report that our Mayor and the City appear to actually be listening and responding to what the people want. Has it been the smoothest and easiest road? Not exactly, but sometimes you do what you have to do to try to get things done. We only hope that in the future a better open communication can be achieved between not only FOHA but the business community, citizens and city hall too!
Hardy Merchants Must Come Together
It is time to finally realize that the business community in Hardy is in desperate times. With this said, it is important that the businesses COME TOGETHER as a group and become a united organization, if not - then you may continue to see a decline in business and tourism in our area. The Mayor in an email over a year ago to one of this websites founders stated that “she felt she was doing her part by ensuring that the basic needs of our city were being properly provided.”I am criticized and accused of “not Liking someone” or “picking on them” when all I want is some action for the money we pay Main Street. No more than I would expect from any business that I pay money to. -Mayor Thornton
The City of Hardy pays them to do a job and if you will read their mission you will see that it is what they are all about. Economic dev, etc for downtown areas. – Mayor Thornton
You have all the amenities that a city needs, water, sewer, trash, streets, none of those are failing and I am in charge of those so what needs to be done? I challenge you to start a merchants association and to keep it running more than a year. -Mayor Thornton
This is even more important because the Main Street Of Hardy, Inc. program’s 2011 budget was once again cut by the City! Remember, our area also has an A&P committee. The business leaders of the community, must come together and present a thought out marketing plan to the A&P Committee, a plan that will work for the purpose that A&P was established for – ATTRACT TOURISM to our area. If we do not attend meetings and get heard by them, they will continue to spend in ways that we believe have not been successful. Currently, there is no marketing plan for the City of Hardy, but there is plenty of money to create one.
Main Street Of Hardy, Inc – Goes Online
We are excited and happy to announce that the official Main Street Organization - Main Street Of Hardy, Inc which is part of the Main Street Arkansas program has announced that they are now officially online at their new website address located at www.mainstreethardyarkansas.org. This is the one and only official website address for the local Main Street Program. If you are not sure what the benefits and purpose of this important organization is, we hope you take the time to visit their website and learn more about them.
Merchants On Main Street
The merchants on Main Street wish to invite every local citizen to remember that we are all part of your neighborhood and just like any neighbor we enjoy your company too! So, if you haven’t recently taken the time to walk on Main Street and just browse the stores then we happily invite you to come on down and visit.
We are part of your community and we hope that each and everyone of you can please take the time to walk along our lovely covered sidewalks and stop in our stores. Please, introduce yourselves, if you haven’t already, and lets enjoy some lively conversation. What makes our town so special is the people and the close community we have. We are part of this community and we enjoy it when you, our neighbors, drop in!
City Hall Please Support The Main Street Program
Times are hard on business and especially on budgets, but sometimes certain cost must be a priority for a city, especially for a city that much of it’s history is based on it’s tourism. In a memorandum put out on Monday Nov 29, just one day prior to the city budget meeting it was announced that the Main Street Of Hardy, Inc., the official Main Street organization that is part of the Main Street Arkansas program, is going to have it’s budget cut even more.
Business Pointers For Newbies
Hi, I’m Steve Hunnicutt. My wife and I have been business owners in Hardy for over thirty years. We have seen many folks come and go who have tried to get a business going in Hardy. Here are some pointers for anyone trying to open and run a successful business anywhere, especially in such a small town as Hardy, where news travels fast, whether it is good or bad.
So a word to the wise: Observe the 10 Commandments of good business to insure a good run. A happy customer is one who will return.
A CUSTOMER:
Scale and the Public Sector in Tourism and Economic Development
Many individual tourism-related businesses and attractions fail because they begin at the wrong scale. While finding a local entrepreneur often is an essential piece to building and tourism and economic development program you want, make sure that local person is supported in the same ways that I hope you support all local entrepreneurs. In particular, they need to do market research and be sharp and realistic about expectations.
The Experience-Based Society
Now, more than in previous decades, people respond well to quality and taste. The trip is about the experience. People with more money to spend in your town are particularly apt to be sensitive to incongruous elements that seem to ruin the atmosphere.
The most appealing towns and cities demonstrate that not every single building and business must contribute to the ambiance, and that a place can still be a magnetic destination even with a few mistakes thrown in. But try to avoid mistakes all the time, and thus to minimize the number of mistakes actually made.
From One Tourist Attraction to More
Then you need a technique for converting one tourist attraction, which most locations already have, or can uncover or create, into more than one attraction. If you have one of something, attempt first to develop more attractions that people with similar interests would enjoy.
Sometimes in smaller communities the additional attractions need to take the form of organizing a tour or joint promotion that extends over several nearby towns. In one area where I worked, about eight wineries in four or five towns over a 30 or 40 mile area combined marketing efforts with considerable success. You may have seen antique stores combine to help antiquers hop from one town to the next, to the benefit of all.
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