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1300 Southend Tavern, a neighborhood restaurant and bar
Jeffrey Edwards: We'd be in big trouble if it wasn't for our regulars. We're hurting like everyone else. It's not anything like we projected, but we have a lot of regulars who look out for us. When I check out the other restaurants, we're about the same or a little less. It's mainly the regulars who are extremely loyal to us -- they keep coming back and raving about our food. I also think a lot of people are leaving south and going Uptown, too. We're coming up on our one-year anniversary, and people have said to be able to make it in this economy for a year is doing pretty good.
1300 South Blvd.
704-372-2980
Comet Grill, a music venue/restaurant
Tommy Noblett: Horrible. It's just really bad. I've got a lot going against me. One, the economy. Two, I have a huge amount of construction going on outside of me; there's a huge Bi-Lo shopping center that's been closed down for like three months, and they're doing all of this demo work. It's killing me because people look at the anchor store as part of the shopping mall. So they see it's closed and they're thinking we're closed. It's definitely been bad for business. As far as the economy goes, we've taken a huge hit on it. I've tried doing numerous specials, different things -- it's been bad. My numbers are off by about 40 percent from where they were last year. It's definitely been rough. We're a musical venue for the most part, so four nights of the week we have music. I don't charge cover, unless it's a huge band that comes through here, and it's been rough. People aren't coming out as much to see the music, but I still have to pay the band the same amount. Overall, it's been tough all around.
2224 Park Rd
704-371-4300
Ragin' Uptown Party Charters, entertainment transportation
Luxury Yacht Charters, largest luxury yacht
TowBoat US, dispatch towing services
Catering Creations, a catering company
Jeremy Thompson: When it boils down to how's business doing right now, the best way I can tell you is we're still growing. If we combined all four companies, the difference between '07 and '08 is that we did a 9 percent growth and we're looking at a 10 percent growth from '08 and going into the part of '09. We're not growing leaps and bounds, but we're still growing, which is nice.
Diversity is the key. I think creativity is the key. If one company takes a dip, another company is there to balance that and pick it up. If the bus business is slower in June, then the boat was there to pick up the lax. I think that's where the whole diversity thing comes in, being able to help minimize risk and increase return across the board. I think the creativity, and being able to work with people, when it comes to a hotel or a restaurant, people are going to play with their prices right now to make sure people are going to utilize their services by walking through the door.
The reason why I think we've been blessed and we've been fortunate is the fact that life is still happening. There are still life events going on. People are still turning 30. Your husband or boyfriend still wants to throw you a 30th birthday. You're still turning 40. You're still turning 21. You're getting married, and you still have to throw a bachelor or bachelorette party. Your bachelor party a year ago might have been in the Bahamas; now it's going to be in Charlotte because it's cheaper. And that's going to help us. Rather than spending the money on traveling dollars, you're going to spend it here locally.
We've seen the whole new term "daycation," sort of thing, happening more around here. We're just trying to be that outlet.
Once again, you can live technically without what most people think about Ragin' Uptown, but with everything that we do, we're centered around a lot of life events, whether it's birthdays, bachelor/bachelorette parties, weddings and such. That's why I think we're still on a good growth pattern.
8218 Parkton Gate Drive, Huntersville
704-451-7433
Qcitymetro.com, a site offering news and information specific to Charlotte's African-American community
Glenn Burkins: We all wish the economy were better. But during good times and bad, business is about winners and losers. Smart business owners find a way to win, even during tough economic times. Ever notice how many great companies were founded during the Great Depression?
Village Emporium, a boutique with everything from home décor to jewelry
Phyllis Smith: We've been here about 10 years, and I think we're pretty lucky right now because we don't sell just one thing so we can adapt to the market. So if people are looking for lower-end items, we can find and sell lower end items because we have used and new stuff. We do that and just find things that we know people want. We know our customer base, we talk to them and try to figure out what they want and find what they want and carry that, instead of what we might like. We might like something different, but we have to adapt to the market. And we have vendors here, so we have a lot of different stuff because everybody has their own booth, so they can put what they want in theirs depending on what their customers like. So that's what we try to do to stay afloat, and I think it's working for us. From talking to other people, I think we're doing really well.
