There are many types of small businesses in our city. Retail, wholesale, fashion, hardware, the little coffee shop. service businesses, doctors, dentists, hairstylists, your local flower shop.
Small businesses such as BlockParty, or Holloway Cleaners, or Fan Girl Cafe, need to be able to share our needs without the filter of a big box hotel or a multi million dollar restaurant business. Our city and its residents deserve more than pot shops, bars and expensive restaurants. The smaller businesses are the heart of the community and many of us are struggling and not being heard.
In discussing the issues with John Erickson he pitched the concept of a West Hollywood Business Council. The job of the West Hollywood Business Council is to attract new businesses to our vacant storefronts. The goal is to mitigate risk for new business ventures to get their foot off the ground. The focus will be to recruit unique businesses and services to West Hollywood.
The West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is a local business organization but the majority of its members are not based in West Hollywood. The Chamber of Commerce charges dues to be represented and each bill has a subsidy for the Weho Pac. The Weho Pac has 6 members 5 of 6 live in Los Angeles, 4 of 6 work in Los Angeles. The little guy pays in and the big guy gets the benefit.
The West Hollywood Business Council would include all businesses with a valid West Hollywood business license free of charge. The WeHo business council would work with local business owners to understand problems and nip them in the bud. The Council could help create marketing materials to promote the entire business community of West Hollywood.
The West Hollywood Business Council’s core mission is to attract and support a diverse pool of new businesses to West Hollywood. Working with the City of West Hollywood and its economic development department the small businesses in WeHo would have a voice. Collectively we may offer preferred credit card processing rates, improved public safely and security for employees, and a coordinated weho approach that brings residents closer to their local community business. We can deal with problems together instead of individually.
The Weho Business Council could also incorporate the ‘weho loves local’ program into a direct to consumer cash model to spend locally, I explored one idea here https://wehoonline.com/2024/09/16/oped-wehocoin-better-way-love-locals/ although the method we use to deliver those benefits to residents is still to be determined. The Weho Business Council would allow local businesses the opportunity to post their daily deals on a master bulletin board that everyone can access.
But more importantly the Weho Business Council will allow all business owners with a valid West Hollywood business license the opportunity to have a seat at the table and a voice in our community. It is an idea whose time has come if we are going to re-build our city with community serving business who need a hand to get off the ground, operate, and be successful.
As a home-based lawyer, would I be eligible to join the business council? This seems like a great idea and I’d love to see it come to fruition.
Any partnership with Erickson will turn into a disaster for Weho. His sudden “idea” is just a sad attempt to get re-elected. Weho needs real solutions to problems. Cancel this guy and let’s move on.
This proposal looks like a solution in search of a problem. Small business owners generally have pretty much the same issues: lack of parking, problems with the homeless, high sales taxes, crime and red tape at City Hall. These are issues common to all businesses in West Hollywood and are concerns shared by the residents. It seems to me that Erickson is anxious to set up a puppet organization to rival, or even replace, the Chamber of Commerce. A new organization set up by City Hall is not going to be an effective “voice” for small business. No matter how… Read more »
I run a small business out of my apartment. I’m not a member of the chamber of commerce and I don’t have a WeHo busienss license. Something like this would allow me to come out of the closet, so to speak, and help my business grow.