Vote to help one small town win a $500K Main Street revival!

Pride in America’s small towns has always existed at a very high level. We love the communities we are from and we cherish memories of the small businesses we grew up with: the corner pharmacy, the ice cream shop, the local grocery store. Yet over the last few years, nowhere have small businesses been more under siege than in our small town communities, where the whims of the economy can often hit hardest.

Our love of small businesses is why Deluxe started the Small Business Revolution, a movement of people sharing and talking about and celebrating small businesses. This year, we took our Revolution a step further by launching the Small Business Revolution – Main Street contest, giving one small town the chance at a $500,000 makeover. This week, we announced our town finalists – Silverton, OR, and Wabash, IN – through mini-documentaries at www.smallbusinessrevolution.org that provide a glimpse into the daily struggles small businesses face in today’s America.

Beginning today and running until May 10, the public is invited to vote for their favorite of our two finalists with the winner receiving the makeover while also being featured in an eight-part web series to air on Smallbusinessrevolution.org this Fall. We will be joined by Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec to provide marketing and business advice to selected businesses in the town while also giving a boost to the local community.

Deluxe received nearly 10,000 nominations from across the country; personal, sometimes heartbreaking and energizing nominations. Sure, I wish we could have chosen dozens to be finalists and in fact I’d love to reward many more towns with a $500,000 makeover. And I know many of these towns would revel in a visit from our partner, Robert Herjavec. What we were left to ask ourselves was “where can we truly make a difference?”

In 2015, Deluxe celebrated the company’s 100th anniversary by turning the spotlight away from ourselves and on 100 small businesses, sharing their compelling stories at www.smallbusinessrevolution.org. Our goal was to build a movement where we come together to share and celebrate the courage, inventiveness and authenticity of small businesses and their owners. With millions of views and thousands of followers on social media, we succeeded. 

Our Main Street contest shines the spotlight on the trials and tribulations of small businesses that are not only tied to the ebbs and flows of the local economy, but to regional and national tides as well. For our first pass, we traveled to a handful of communities on our short list, learning about the community and the culture, determining the best path to help that town. Does it need too much help? Is it already too perfect? Would we find a Goldilocks moment – just right? 

In Silverton and Wabash, we are sharing two very different communities. 

Silverton is located in the lush and fertile Willamette Valley, tucked south of Portland and north of Eugene and Salem. A touristy town, Silverton has twice survived fires that devastated the community. And, as locals say, though tourism is a draw, many times their community feels like a pass-through for people on their way to somewhere else. An eclectic mix of businesses, from a yarn shop to coffee shops to a bike and board shop, line the main streets.

Wabash is nestled in the heartland...the "rust belt of America" as it is sometimes referred to. A working-class town, the community relies less on tourism and more on building lasting relationships within the business community to boost awareness of the downtown. With a boutique hotel, tattoo shop, law firms and a vintage video game store, Wabash paints the picture of small towns as we know them.

Since the end of January, the Small Business Revolution has shared nuggets of information from many of the incredible small town nominations we received. In announcing our finalists for the $500,000 makeover, we’re excited to share the stories of these amazing communities, while knowing that thousands of towns across the country have amazingly compelling and brilliant stories to share too. We know that bits of each of those small town stories live within the content of Silverton and Wabash.

For lovers of small towns, of small businesses, the mini-documentaries about Silverton and Wabash will speak to that passion and pride we all share. You will see yourself in the Eclectic Shop in Wabash or Gather in Silverton; you will resonate with Fall Line Bike, Skate and Snow in Silverton and with Schlemmer Brothers Metals Works in Wabash.

The movement started by the Small Business Revolution is about sharing the narrative of the American worker, seen through the eyes of an owner, an entrepreneur, a community leader. I encourage you to watch these stories at www.smallbusinessrevolution.org and vote for your favorite. But more importantly, I encourage you to get lost in the story and remember why small towns and small businesses remain so integral to collective fabric of our lives. They are the heartbeat and lifeblood of this country.