Number of business startups, optimism are on the rise

While Lonnie Chapman grew up in Jackson, he wished there was a local business where he could buy used video games. The only way for him to do so was by traveling to neighboring Cape Girardeau.

Chapman spent about a year and a half forming a 29-page business plan and shopped his idea around to different banks.

Six banks later, his vision was realized, and Chapman received a loan and opened Gaming Grounds in Jackson.

The business doubles as a retailer that buys, sells and trades new and used video games, as well as a family-friendly gaming hangout.

After opening his Jackson location three years ago, Chapman noticed another need.

Many of his Gaming Grounds customers, particularly Southeast Missouri State University students, were driving from Cape Girardeau to Jackson to visit the store.

On April 1, Chapman opened his second Gaming Grounds store in Cape Girardeau at 709 Broadway, near the Southeast campus.

Booming business

Chapman's video game store is an example of Missouri's trend of a steady increase in the number of business startups. Cape Girardeau has become part of the trend, bringing more business into the community, said Tim Arbeiter, vice president of community development at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce.

Not only are sites being redeveloped, such as the Plaza Galleria property and the former DuShell's Furniture building, both of which are slated to be grocery store locations, but many new businesses are taking over long-vacant properties.

Though space still is available, empty properties are "starting to get gobbled up," and space may become harder to find, Arbeiter said.

The number of business licenses issued in Cape Girardeau increased in 2011 and 2012. But last year, 172 business licenses were issued, down from 239 the year before, according to data from Cape Girardeau City Hall.

The decrease in the number of business licenses issued last year may be because some business owners wanted to invest in a market not specific to Cape Girardeau, said Keith Huggins, business development associate at Southeast's Douglas C. Greene Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

"We're still going to see that ebb and flow" as businesses choose to merge, close or relocate, Arbeiter said. But "closures are getting fewer and fewer, which is a good thing."

Data from Cape Girardeau City Hall shows only 96 local businesses closed in 2013, the lowest number of closures per year over the last 10 years.

Businesses inquiring about moving into the community is part of the sequence.

"Again, it's a cycle," Arbeiter said. "We feel very confident that we're going to get better and better."

Tim Morgan, inspections services director for Cape Girardeau, said his office reviews licenses such as business and liquor licenses and lately, quite a few have been passing through the office.

"There hasn't been a week that we don't have some of those to sign off on," Morgan said.

Many remodels and tenant infills, when a business chooses to occupy a space in a location such as a strip mall, also have come through the office, he said. After speaking to many business owners, builders and contractors, Morgan said he thinks the consensus the economy is on the upswing is driving the rise in business creation.

Business numbers suffer

Between 1994 and 2004, the number of businesses created annually in Missouri more than doubled, jumping from 18,245 to 38,836, according to data from the Missouri Secretary of State. But the number of businesses created dropped from 42,929 in 2006 to 38,040 in 2009 before beginning a rebound.

Cape Girardeau dealt with the same lack of business startups during the recession, losing 163 businesses in 2008 -- the highest number of closed businesses in over the past 10 years.

The economy is a factor in the number of local businesses created and closed, Huggins said. During the recession, people lost their jobs, and some looked to alternative ways to earn income, such as opening businesses.

How a new business will fare, factoring in the economy, depends on what industry the business is in, Huggins said. For example, a service establishment such as a restaurant could be successful in a poor economy because people have to eat, but a bakery geared toward dogs may not be successful.

Making a comeback

The economy now is bouncing back, and so are businesses.

In 2013, 47,463 businesses were created in the state, according the Secretary of State's data.

People interested in opening a business are more confident than they were three years ago, Arbeiter said.

"That hesitancy isn't quite there today," he said. "There's a willingness to take that risk."

The economy is in a better state compared to when local small businesses were struggling a few years ago, Chapman said.

He not only thinks it makes business owners more confident, but it also makes banks more confident and willing to dole out loans.

Huggins said he has found businesses run by one or two people to be more successful than those run by many people, as well as businesses that start out as home-based, because the owners are minimizing expenses and risk.

Cape Girardeau also is working toward making it easier for entrepreneurs to submit license applications online, with the ability to track them after they are submitted, Morgan said.

More resources are available to assist entrepreneurs with their questions or problems they may encounter, Huggins said, and now is as good a time for them to follow their dreams of being business owners.

Entrepreneurs who take that leap of faith help create a "nice evolution of our economy," Arbeiter said, where people become invested in Cape Girardeau.

ashedd@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

709 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO