Seminole Heights Retail Locations Struggle with Slow Sales.

You may have heard the story the Tampa Bay Times did on Seminole Heights restaurants facing struggles because residents are afraid to leave their homes.

Well, retail businesses in the area are feeling the strain as well. For example, on Valhalla's busiest day of the week last week, we made $2 in total sales for the day. Sadly, we're not the only one facing such a steep decline in sales.

Supporting local business, especially in hard times like these, is an important thing you can do to help build your community.

According to a study done by American Express, homes near areas with a high proportion of small, local retailers saw a rise in property values 17% higher than growth in comparable areas with proportionally fewer independent retailers.

“Last month Valhalla kept 79% of costs within the Seminole Heights community”

According to the Civic Economics Study, about 68% of money spent in a local community stays within the community. David Boyle of the Community Supported Agriculture Program says, "Money is like blood. It needs to keep moving around to keep the economy going." When money is spent at big box stores, "it flows out, like a wound."

At Valhalla, we strive to do better. Last month we kept 79% of costs within the Seminole Heights community. If you expand to look at Tampa as a whole, 89% of our expenses were kept within the community - about 20% more than the average small business. We also believe in supporting other women, 40% of our expenses last month went to supporting woman owned businesses and women in our community.

Things you can do to help:

Go out and shop local! Instead of getting a face cream at Target, pick it up at Cleanse Apothecary.
Organize a girls' day out shopping event. Shopping is always more fun with a lot of friends!
Make sure you're following your favorite local shops on social media.
Tell your friends about our great retail locations. Go to your favorite retail locations' Facebook pages and invite your friends to like the pages.
Make sure to shop local on Small Business Saturday.
Organize a group shopping event around Small Business Saturday.
Purchase gift certificates as way to help spread the word about your favorite retail location.
Share this article about the importance of shopping local.
Use social media to tag yourself using a product from a local retail location.

#ShopSH

Starting a Business Costs a Fortune

Starting a new business takes practically a fortune to get it off the ground, especially starting a brick and mortar store. Luckily I was able to use a number of small, local businesses which allowed me to put a large portion of that fortune back into our community. Giving back to the community we live and work in has been a passion of mine since I moved to Seminole Heights 10 years ago. When you spend your dollars at a small business, about 70% stays in the local community. This means that the money you spend helps to keep people employed within our community. We were lucky enough to have opportunities to spend with small, local companies in our start up phase and we will continue to do so as we continue operations.

For every dollar you spend at a small business, about 70% stays in the local community.

Worries of a Startup

I knew that I was planning on starting a business that no one had ever started before. Which sounds great, but in reality, as the founder, I was constantly worried that this just wouldn't work. Thoughts like "if no one else has thought of this, it must be a bad idea" played on a continuous loop in my brain. Luckily, the folks at USF's Small Business Development Center (SBDC) assigned me a business adviser that read my business plan and gave me the confidence to get the ball rolling.

Help Along the Way

Blind Tiger in Ybor provided me with a much needed space for working on my business plan and just general planning. I spent many long days and nights (and weekends too) working away in their co-work space. As an added bonus, I made some great connections and friends.

Just across the street from Blind Tiger is Corral and Gallagher Attorneys at Law P.A. who helped me with an invaluable referral for carpentry work; Hard Tack. - I know, strange that I got a carpentry referral from lawyers but what can I say, they know their local businesses!

The space wouldn’t be what it is today without all the hard work and long hours Nick Lorden at Hard Tack put into making Valhalla an interesting, fun, and functional space. Hard Tack had full creative control; I have to say, the pieces Nick finished would not have looked half as great if I had any of the creative control. Hard Tack designed, built, and installed the massive front counter, wall of plants, front window display, and the laundry sorting rack in the laundry room. Nick even had the brilliant idea of designing the counter specifically to my height so I would be comfortable working long hours, knowing that I suffer from neck and back pain.

Rustic Steel found and installed the reclaimed barn door and fabricated the steel frames of the dressing rooms which gives the store a very unique look and I think it adds a bit of fun to the dressing room experience. I was a little afraid to approach Rustic Steel about the project because their work is always so artistic and different but they were happy to help. The chairs in the dressing room came to us from D&D Antiques. I absolutely love the gold velvet color.

Rustic Steel's Barn Door & Dressing Room Frame

Powerhouse Electric of Tampa Bay did the electrical work in the store - I know not glamorous but important just the same. They were very helpful with suggesting placement of the lighting and completed the work exactly on time (even though they had a lot of work to do).

Corwin Design did all of Valhalla's print work: business cards and flyers. I came from an office work environment where I was not so affectionately called the "paperless queen." I have to admit, in the beginning I poo pooed the idea of using paper for really anything but I've realized that people expect to be able to hold on to the idea of your business and share it with others. I used the flyers and business cards to spread the word about the opening of the store at Fringe Creatives' neighborhood markets and we're going to be using Fringe Creatives' artists to help fill our store with art you can purchase from locals. The artists will rotate so you'll see new artists' work on a regular basis.

At Valhalla we are committed to health of our environment, after all, the idea of a collective closet was to help stop waste, so we have made a decision not to provide plastic, disposable bags to customers. Instead, we offer cotton reusable bags which were purchased from Warhole Designs. They also did a great job on the window decals displaying our logo.

No Personal Time - Even for Little Things

Getting the build out done in only a month and a half was challenging. It meant that I was painting, tagging, inventorying, and doing laundry pretty much 24/7 which left very little time to do anything for myself - namely feeding myself. Luckily for me, the folks at Sulfur Springs Sandwich Shop and the lovely ladies at Above the Salt kept me feed.

More people to thank

There are many many more businesses and people that supported us and helped Valhalla become what it has today. From words of encouragement, recommendations, sharing social media, to telling friends the old fashion way. Thank you to you all! <3

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