Last week Anytime Fitness here in Cudahy held a grand reopening event marking the completion of a renovation project that expanded Anytime Fitness’ facility.
Anytime Fitness is a great example of a locally-owned business that’s not only put down roots in Cudahy – it’s actually grown here in Cudahy, and it’s exactly the kind of business Cudahy’s elected officials should be proud to support. In advance of grand reopening of Anytime Fitness, one local elected official did send out an email announcing the event, but I’ve been told that not a single elected official from the City of Cudahy bothered to attend Anytime Fitness’ grand reopening to show their support for this great local business.
While I certainly understand local elected officials can have a lot of demands for their time, efforts to support local businesses should encompass more than mere words on paper, in an email, or on a webpage. On Cudahy Mayor John Hohenfeldt’s official page on the City of Cudahy’s website, he makes it pretty clear he supports local businesses:
I encourage everyone to support our local businesses. Many of these businesses also donate a portion of their profits back to our community to various community organizations, other school causes and activities. While I look forward to working hard on adding new businesses into our community, please shop locally and support our current local businesses.
While it’s easy to say, “I support local businesses,” words don’t mean a thing unless they’re backed up by actions.
If Cudahy’s elected leaders can’t be bothered to show up to show their support for a great local business that’s actually growing in Cudahy, word’s going to spread like wildfire that Cudahy still isn’t a great place to do business, despite the rhetoric voters and business owners heard from the folks who were recently elected (or reelected) to serve the City of Cudahy.
More than official sanction, new local businesses need to do the type of preparation done by the large franchises before they open a local store or restaurant: Site traffic size and compatibility, product need or acceptability, competition, cost of market entry, sign and name effectiveness, management expertise, labor and product availability, advertising/marketing capital & strategy, cost/ease of market entry, etc., etc. With 95% of small businesses failing these days, is there an exit strategy? Politicians and even the Chamber of Commerce are never friends of these intrepid new businesses because they know the odds.
Excellent point. Words are cheap. Maybe he had to watch Honey Boo Boo or something.
Zachary since you campaigned on development and even promoted Anytime why were you not there?
I wasn’t there because I had a child at home that needed to be attended to. However, my family directly supports Anytime Fitness through monthly membership dues, and ultimately I’m not an elected official who campaigned on supporting local businesses. I’m simply a private citizen concerned that election season rhetoric isn’t translating into post-election reality.