Mat Faulkner, the owner of Think Idea Studio in Searcy, saw the Small Business Revolution-Main Street contest on Facebook and entered "on a whim."
Now Searcy has made the top 10 -- from about 12,000 entries -- and is in the running to win $500,000 for six small businesses and be featured on the eight-part online and Hulu series.
"I feel like we have a phenomenal chance," said Amy Burton, executive director of Main Street Searcy.
The online series, in its fourth season, is hosted by television personality Ty Pennington and Amanda Brinkman, chief brand and communications officer with Deluxe, the national marketing company that sponsors the project.
After Faulkner entered Searcy in the competition, he was at work one day when the producer from the show called to tell him Searcy had made the top 20.
"That was a big deal," he said.
A communitywide watch party was held last week at the historic Rialto Theater in Searcy to see if the city had made the top 10. It was a "big party atmosphere," Faulkner said, with free pizza, popcorn and soft drinks.
Residents nervously watched a video of Brinkman holding up oversized cards, one by one, with names of the 10 winning communities. She finally got to the ninth city -- Searcy -- and attendees jumped from their chairs and exploded into applause and cheers.
Faulkner wasn't surprised that Searcy rose to the top.
"I feel like we were maybe a little bit slow out of the gate," Faulkner said. "Once we rallied the troops, it has been phenomenal how the community has embraced it."
A production team will visit Searcy for two days in January and meet residents and city leaders to get to know them. The production team will talk to small-business owners in town who hope to be chosen for makeovers, whether it's changing their logos or renovating physical locations. Readers may remember that Pennington was the host of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
The top-five cities will be chosen in mid-February, and if Searcy makes the cut, those five cities will be in a nationwide online contest, and the public will vote for a week. The top vote-getting city will win and be announced at the end of February. Then a production crew, which includes Pennington, will be in the winning city for two to three months, Faulkner said.
To get to this point, residents had to show #MySearcy flyers in selfies or put them in the windows of their businesses and post photos. They had to like the Small Business Revolution Facebook Page and say why they loved Searcy -- the people, the businesses and why Searcy should win.
"I feel like Searcy did exceptionally well as far as social-media engagement," Faulkner said.
Once Searcy made the top 20, residents got organized and promoted Searcy with a video. Community and state leaders and entities got in on the act. The Searcy Regional Chamber of Commerce has been at the forefront, as well as the White County judge, the Searcy mayor -- even Gov. Asa Hutchinson helped by holding a poster of #MySearcy for a promotion.
Burton emphasized that it's not just downtown businesses or retail stores that are eligible to be considered for the project.
"It's service, retail, restaurants -- any small business," she said.
Small businesses that want to be considered if Searcy wins the contest can apply at mysearcy.org and click on the link "the sooner the better," she said.
One business owner who has applied is Greg Geroy, owner of Quattlebaum Music.
"I'm just a small part of this," Geroy said, adding that the potential to win money for his business isn't what motivated him to participate in the contest.
"From my standpoint, the money part is not why we're involved," Geroy said. "That would be great, but right now, it's all about Searcy and trying to get us greater notoriety and greater strength and really just to help boost us up with one another. It's so vital for us to work for a common cause.
"We're in the top 10 of the thing in the nation, so we're big winners already. The goal is the next step."
Jo Ellis, founder of Make.Do. in Searcy, said she is "just thrilled" about the Small Business Revolution competition.
A Harding University graduate, she lived in Northwest Arkansas, Ireland and Dallas before moving back to Searcy 2 1/2 years ago.
Make.Do. offers classes in creative projects for the public and organizations. Focusing on adolescent girls and women, Ellis said, her focus is the "vulnerable or marginalized pockets of the community. I don't want them to stay isolated."
She doesn't want the more privileged population to be isolated, either.
Ellis said the idea is to find ways for people who are different to interact with each other and create shared experiences to form genuine relationships.
Ellis said the top-10 finish for Searcy in the Small Business Revolution-Main Street was confirmation that Searcy is on the move.
"I've felt a huge shift in the momentum, or maybe even in the attitude of people here in Searcy. I'm 35 -- people my age and younger, we want to stay in Searcy, or we want to come back and invest in this community," Ellis said. "Particularly in the past nine months, I can see a big change in people getting involved in what we're doing and getting excited about things our town is offering.
"The Small Business Revolution recognizing that is just a huge compliment to Searcy and all the work and energy we're already putting into making Searcy ... a cool place to live. I'm proud of our town, and I'm excited that's being recognized on a national level."
Ellis said she has a few ideas about how her business could be improved by Deluxe.
"The biggest hurdle or obstacle for Make.Do. in achieving its mission is our space," she said. "It's a fabulous space, bright and cheery and inspires creativity, but I'm upstairs. That limits accessibility."
She said the elderly and people who can't climb stairs don't get to participate in her classes.
That would be a big thing they could help with," she said.
Also, Ellis said, with the exception of a video about her business, "I've bootstrapped everything you see from Make.Do.," including the website, Facebook page, her logo and more.
Having professional help from Deluxe with branding and "even boring stuff like website optimization" to get more people aware of her business would be a dream, she said.
Burton said Deluxe will hold small-business seminars for the community when it comes to town in January "and leave tools" that can help other businesses. She said those tools could have a "trickle down" effect on economic development.
"Yes, it's putting our best foot forward, but the point of this whole program is to help small-business owners," Burton said.
"We want to wow them, but we want them to understand, while we have gained a lot of momentum over the past decade with our small businesses, we don't want to become stagnant," he said.
Faulkner is involved in several organizations, including the Searcy Regional Economic Development Corp., and is chairman of the Small-Business Council for the Searcy Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Burton and Faulkner are optimistic about Searcy's chances to win the grand prize.
Searcy was the only city in Arkansas to make the cut, and others in the top 10 include cities in Texas, Oklahoma, Washington, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Colorado.
"We feel like we have a positive momentum, that we have a good chance of winning," Faulkner said, "but if we don't, we'll have our own small-business revolution. This will be a jump start.
"Already, it's been a great opportunity for the community to rally and unify for one reason or cause."
If nothing else, the experience has helped Searcy "dream about what's possible, and that's what we're shooting for," Faulkner said.
NW News on 12/18/2018