Attracting the stimulus dollars

How are you going to spend your stimulus check? Better still, what is your business's strategy for getting customers to spend their stimulus — or as one humorous ad I heard this week pronounced it, "stemless" — money?

Those $300, $600, $1,200 and larger payments are arriving now or en route to taxpayers over the coming weeks. One strategy businesses are using is humor. Another marketing push I've seen is a contest where one lucky winner will get their stimulus amount doubled in store credit.

We'll be seeing the ads for the next six weeks at least, and I'd like to ask astute readers to let me know what they're doing to lure that money and what they plan to do with the cash. If I get enough responses, either in e-mails, letters or phone calls, I'll share some in this space and perhaps do a feature on what I consider the best plans.

• New writer: You may notice a name that is both familiar and new on this page. Look closely at this week's feature article about Yumazu Anime and Collectibles. The writer is Brian Blackwell, the latest addition to the Missourian staff.

First of all, as far as we can tell he is not related to Sam Blackwell, our former editor and writer who recently left the newspaper to take a position at Southeast Missouri State University. Brian, 29, started last Monday and will be handling many of the chores for the business page — keeping up with People on the Move items, our Memo items and writing features about local businesses.

I'll continue to write this column for a while, until Brian has a good feel for the community.

Brian, 29, recently received his master's degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska. Before that he worked at a weekly Baptist newspaper in Louisiana. In that job he handled most of the editorial duties after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Brian received his undergraduate degree from Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss. He and his wife, Ashley, are living in Cape Girardeau.

• Keeping it real: Cecil Sampson said he named his new business venture Black Reality Enterprises because his reality is he is "always broke" and he wants that to change. Offering CDs, T-shirts, perfume, cologne, sunshades, designer purses, jeans, digital cameras and CDs of his own music, Sampson will be setting up shop at 1700 Broadway, at the Quik Stop across from Southeast Missouri Hospital on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. He's trying to support his pregnant wife, who is pursuing a double major at Southeast Missouri State University, Sampson said. He's from St. Louis originally.

"The whole reason I am down here is to take care of my son," Sampson said. "I was having trouble getting a job down here" that would support a family "so I said I'll go into business for myself."

• Curves closed: The Cape Girardeau Curves for Women franchise at 623 S. Silver Springs Road has closed, a little more than two years after being purchased by Bryan and Tish Gentry, who also operate franchises in Dexter, Mo., and West Plains, Mo.

The business just wasn't supporting itself despite the couple's best efforts, Tish Gentry said last week. The business was in worse shape than it appeared when they bought it, she said.

"I hired someone really great at marketing and we definitely made some huge changes, but I took two steps forward and four steps back," she said. "I finally was just going deeper and deeper financially."

Keeping the workout center open in the face of much stiffer competition for disposable dollars than in either of her other locations was one reason for the closure, Gentry said. She doesn't live in town, has children and must watch over the other two locations as well, she said. "I probably spread myself a little thin."

Gentry has been with Curves for 11 years and feels the Cape Girardeau location could be a success. She said she's working with the parent company to find a new operator, perhaps by combining the Cape Girardeau franchise with the Jackson location.

Women with prepaid memberships have either received refunds or been processed to transfer their memberships, Gentry said.

"I feel it could be a great club," she said. "I just feel at this time it isn't for me."

From the news release file:

• PAJCO Inc., the parent company for Rhodes 101 Stops, announced Thursday that it had purchased the Rhodes Travel Center at the Route AB exit on Interstate 55, from owner and Rhodes 101 Stop founder Gene Rhodes. PAJCO purchased the Rhodes 101 Stop chain of convenience stores from Rhodes in 1998, but he kept the travel center and remained active in real estate ventures. But recently, the news release said, Rhodes underwent heart-bypass surgery and decided to sell the operating business and "narrow his focus to investments that do not demand daily attention." PAJCO will add profitable concessions developed in Rhodes 101 Stop stores to the travel center's operation, including the gourmet coffee line and in-store fresh food offerings.
• Genesis Transportation Inc. of Cape Girardeau was presented a Platinum award for safety by the Great West Casualty Co. The Platinum award is the highest of four levels of recognition the insurer bestows on participants in the program that reviews companies' yearly preventable accident totals.
• There's more than just the stimulus checks out there for businesses looking to obtain federal dollars. The U.S. Small Business Administration is inviting small business owners to log on to a one-hour chat with Fay Ott, associate administrator for government contracting and business development. The chat, from 1 to 2 p.m. local time Thursday, is titled "How to do Business with the Federal Government." It will offer pointers on registering with the central contractor registry, the first step in doing business with the federal government, and other tips on obtaining a share of the $400 billion in annual contract awards. To participate, log on to www.sba.gov and follow the links. Questions may be submitted in advance.

Rudi Keller is the business editor for the Southeast Missourian. Contact him at rkeller@semissourian.com, or call 335-6611, extension 126. Brian Blackwell can be reached at bblackwell@semissourian.com, or call 335-6611, extension 137.