Small businesses in Salisbury banding together to get more resources, stay afloat
SALISBURY, MD – Businesses in Salisbury are celebrating the creation of the newly formed Downtown Businesses Alliance.
Founding members Nicole Rogers and Nicole Blackwater say they need more than the occasional Third Friday to keep their businesses open.
“We’re hoping to see more cohesive business hours for the businesses down here, we’re hoping to encourage and incentivize more businesses opening up and we’re hoping to find grant opportunities for existing businesses,” Blackwater said adding “We have the feeling that the city is more focused on the future and we need to have a focus on the existing businesses or else one day we will just have third Friday here in the street with everything boarded up.”
They say since the peak of spring 2023 businesses have seen nearly a 50 percent reduction in some months in foot traffic and sales, but are hoping the organization can help turn it around
Wednesday they held their first meeting with Salisbury Mayor Randy Taylor and the Salisbury area chamber of commerce, identifying actions such as increased media buys, advertising, and a need to go after small businesses grants from the state and federal level to help prioritize the downtown.
“We have had a decline in business over the last six, seven months and it is really hurting us and we want to band together as small businesses to help the city and help the rest of Salisbury feel excited about downtown again,” Rogers said.
The alliance is hoping to gain access to the state-administered small business development zone grant funding, they’re also trying to collaborate on what time of the day most businesses will be open.
Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce President Bill Chambers says the organization is ready to help support them.
Chambers says keeping current businesses afloat now ensures better investments down the line adding no one wants to see businesses boarded up.
“The city will have to support what’s here and to support what’s coming and that needs to be as I said, a partnership, but we need to be more aggressive, all of us,” Chamber said.
