Success Stories Show Small Businesses Thriving in Rural Alabama
By Kelli Degnan Email
Nana’s Notes
Shirley Cotney opened her own small business in September of 2006. Nana’s Notes can be found at the end of a dirt road in Chambers County about an hour and a half from Auburn. There aren’t many stores or even service stations around the rural area everyone knows everybody.
Nana’s Notes
Shirley Cotney opened her own small business in September of 2006. Nana’s Notes can be found at the end of a dirt road in Chambers County about an hour and a half from Auburn. There aren’t many stores or even service stations around the rural area everyone knows everybody.
Cotney’s home-based business, Nana’s Notes, is a printing company that sells a variety of invitations, note cards, business cards, and other personalized and monogrammed items.
Displays in her home feature different designs of invitations and note cards. “Nobody around here does personalized printing,” Cotney said. So she decided she would do it for herself and friends. A year later, she has customers from Randolph County, Clay County, Tallapoosa County, Lee County and some from as far away as Birmingham.
Cotney went to Auburn University’s Small Business Development Center when she first realized she wanted to start a business. “They helped with the loan and gave advice about marketing and financial planning.”
Cotney didn’t know how to start a business but experts with the SBDC told her what she needed. “Within two weeks I had everything.”
There are different strategies in promoting a small local business. “Sometimes I might put an ad in the paper.” Cotney also looks in the paper for engagements, since there are numerous amounts of party invitations needed during a wedding engagement.
“Keeping books current and correct” is another challenge for Cotney. She must keep her expenses and documentations up to date. The biggest challenge in currently running her business is managing her accounts.
According to Cotney, success requires “doing something you actually like to do, something you enjoy.” When you have that, it is easier to overcome challenges. “It’s more like a hobby than my job.”
With a location and business like Cotney’s, success is not always the outcome. She advises small business owners to be cautious. “Don’t go overboard. Get your business on solid ground.”
Home-based is a good way to start “if it will succeed in the area” while not getting swamped in debt. Cotney also succeeds by using the rural location to her advantage.
Cotney’s unique business makes it the only one in the area. “I’m selling a product that’s useful to a variety of people.”
She said she enjoys running the business from her home. “I don’t have to pay myself and I work when I want.” There is no set hours, no over-head department and expenses are low, she added.
For now, Cotney said she is enjoying success with enough customers “to keep me busy.”
Yellow Hammer RestaurantMike Hoff is the proud owner of Yellow Hammer Restaurant in the rural town of Waverly, Ala.
The Yellow Hammer,www.yellowhammerrestaurant.com, is in the heart of Waverly, a village with a population of about 200. It is housed in an old building once occupied by a Ford dealership and gas station.
The style of the restaurant reflects the history of the community. It has a rustic and homey feel yet offers “fine dining with a Mediterranean flair”.
Hoff sees the rural location of his establishment as a real advantage.
The distance of Yellow Hammer is the same from Lake Martin as it is from Auburn and Opelika. Hoff says, “There is a lot to be said about this location. It has its own particular charm. It’s a lot like being in Mayberry, and I think people enjoy that.”
Hoff opened the restaurant in October of 2004 after remodeling during the previous summer. Hoff has never owned a restaurant before but has been in business for himself his whole life. He had previously worked in restaurants and “felt I could combine the two with out too much trouble.”
Hoff considers “the challenge of seeing if I can make something work,” the best part of owning the restaurant. It is gratifying to see the place develop and prosper. Hoff says in order to see that in his business, “you have to be sociable and have fun seeing people and meeting people.” He jokes, “It’s like having a party every week and people pay me to come.”
Hoff is responsible for the over-view of the whole operation. This entails monitoring the mathematical aspects of running a business, maintenance, fixing things that break in the kitchen while being concerned with cash-flow, advertising and promotion.
A challenge Hoff refers to is bill paying. “Bills are an art and science.” This small restaurant must make it work.
Hoff’s solution for this problem: finding “ways that get the name out to the public so people know about us and finding the most effective ways to do that.”
Success lies also in the manager and chef.
They try to make things work from their end through preparing the menu and wine list and keeping customers interested. “Each has a little niche.”
Hoff is seeing success with his business through good food, good service, and a good reputation. He tries to “gain customers from every place.”
He added that, no matter what the location, one must be “willing to work hard and surround your self with competent people with a good work ethic who know what they’re doing.”
Hoff says it is also necessary to have a good idea that the market will support. “It must be embraced by the public.” In Waverly, Yellow Hammer is just that.
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Last updated May 03, 2007