Think small: Local entrepreneurs band together for Small Business Saturday

While what happens during the Christmas shopping season can make or break some locally owned small businesses, a technology store such as RadioActive in Kalispell doesn’t have to base its annual success on sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But RadioActive owner Mark Lane said he still feels it’s important to participate in this year’s Small Business Saturday on Nov. 30, when the nation’s independent entrepreneurs band together to promote local stores for holiday shopping.

“There are a lot of advantages of buying from a local business,” Lane said. “You support your community, the profits stay in the area. While big box stores do employ people, our profits stay in the community. Our employee are not transferring in and out, either — they’re here a long time. My average employee has been here for nine years.”

RadioActive, which provides computer repair and numerous technology services along with equipment sales, will offer incentives from manufacturers on its retail stock of computers and accessories on Small Business Saturday.   

RadioActive has joined the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce’s first official effort to organize local entrepreneurs for the event, which was started in 2010 as a project of American Express.  

Many of the involved local businesses are offering perks for shoppers who show receipts from other participants in the network, such as $5 off of a $30 purchase. For example, First Choice Decor, a fair trade gift store on Main Street in Kalispell, is also giving shoppers a free cup of fair trade coffee along with the $5 bonus deal.

 Though most of the participating businesses are in Kalispell, not all are downtown. The Kalispell Chamber Facebook page will continue to be updated with the list of businesses and their Small Business Saturday specials. The participating businesses also will display official “Shop Small” signs.

Chantal Yacavone of Great Karma gift store in Kalispell is officially joining the Small Business Saturday effort. She opened her store of handcrafted beauty products, candles, jewelry and more, about a year ago. This will be her second Christmas season.

Yacavone said she is most noted for her tub treats such as Bath Bombs and Karma Cupcakes.

“I have things you can’t get anywhere else, they’re unique and unusual,” she said.

Providing what can’t be found in the big chain stores is one of the best ways small businesses have found to lure customers.

Lane said RadioActive has held on to customers through focusing on products that aren’t sold by the box stores or offering a huge selection on certain product niches. The box stores are corporate-driven and have little discretion regarding their stock, Lane said.

“At any given point, we have 650 laptops to sell,” he said. “We don’t stock all of them, but we can order any products and it takes two or three days to get in. “

For example, he said, many customers still want Windows 7 machines and all the corporate chains often offer is Windows 8, he said.

“We don’t have a corporate office telling us what to sell and when,” he said.

Kalispell’s Trailhead Supply, which specializes in horse tack, camping supplies and rodeo equipment, might not seem like a first choice for gift shopping, but the store sells a number of unusual and Western-themed gift items as well as equine-related gear.

Novel items include a wide selection of horseshoe nail jewelry, with Christmas-related items such as Western-themed beeswax ornaments and cookie cutters.

Trailhead Supply owner Andy Breland said he feels shopping local is almost a moral imperative for anyone who cares about the Flathead Valley economy.

“We’re tired of big box stores coming in and taking all the revenue out,” he said. “Montana is built of small-business owners.

“At some point, we have to rebuild our economy and Cabela’s is not the answer. All that money goes back to Nebraska.”

Breland said that even before the official Kalispell Chamber program, he took advantage of Small Business Saturday by banding with other entrepreneur friends, passing out flyers and coupons for other local businesses while the other businesses did the same for Trailhead.

 He practices what he preaches when it comes to buying local.

“Even our business model is that 80 percent of what we have is made in Montana,” he said. “We try really hard to support Montana.”

Breland’s daughter Sydney Paine is part of the Trailhead business and has been heavily involved in this year’s local Small Business Saturday effort.

“You can’t fight the box stores, you just have to embrace the fact that you’re a small business,” she said. “You have to advertise like crazy because your name won’t be in everyone’s head. You have to educate customers and find those who care about where they live.”

Business reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.