I have been suffering from writers block for some time, and it broke today.
I could tell that I got less and less involved in writing over the last months and suspected it was because I was not writing about what I really wanted to write about. But what was it I wanted to write about? Today I found out.
I wrote the introduction to Main Street - The Business to Business Magazine. The words just flew onto the page and then I knew; I have been wanting to tell you about Main Street.
Whenever I am giving birth to a new publication, it is hard to concentrate on much else. I want to tell everyone what I am working on and I had not done that in this monthly column. Here is the rest of the story...
Main Street! What is It?
Main Street - The Business to Business Magazine will be our meeting place.
Thanks for asking. Our new business to business publication fills a niche for those of us who are entrepreneurs. No one knows just what it is like to start, to own, to work in, to put blood, sweat and tears into a business like we who are entrepreneurs know. We need to know and be talking to and supporting each other.
Our business has been publishing magazines since 1981 and we have seen so many changes - from previous times when Mom and Pop were working their business from day one until retirement to wretching numbers that suggest 90 percent of us will fail in our first decade and most of that number in the first five years. Not for the faint-hearted is more than a saying.
GM had the government to bail it out, but we have only ourselves and each other, and many of our kindred spirits just don't make it. Maybe we can help reduce that devastation. Sometimes it is just a bridge that is needed to get over the troubled waters. And maybe we can build it together.
Main Street will be our meeting place.
It is, after all, where we live mentally, if not
physically. We can know who is doing what
and help the printed word become our spoken
word as we tell others about each other.
Most of us who make it - or should I say are making it - love what we do. Love it in great times and love it through bad times. But love it always we do. Maybe we are the remnants of the pioneers getting in a wagon to seek land, even gold. Maybe we are the direct ancestors of the pilgrims seeking a life they can call their own or we are descendents of the Native Americans who loved the earth and loved wildlife and loved freedom. We are all proud of what we do, whether or not we make a good living doing it.
Main Street will be our meeting place. It is, after all, where we live mentally, if not physically. We can know who is doing what and help the printed word become our spoken word as we tell others about each other.
I've experienced the help of other businesses personally. When I launched the little magazine I titled The Great Bridge Shopper in 1981, I asked the business owners who advertised in it to tell others about it. They did. They did! And so did you, our readers. It made all the difference. Now we mail 11 separate upscale Shoppers each month covering 110,000 upscale homes throughout all Southside cities and NE North Carolina. Yet some of the 27,000 businesses who will receive Main Street - split into three issues each quarter - may actually not be familiar with The Shopper until now.
With the launch of Main Street - The Business to Business Magazine - we can introduce the businesses of Southside to our Shoppers and to our Doctor to Doctor Magazine. Doctor was launched in 2009 and is mailed only to the physicians, dentists and medical businesses of Southside and Northeastern NC, and is a wonderful vehicle to communicate to doctors while they reach out to each other. You can read it also at DoctorToDoctorMagazine.com
I believe you will find one or all of these upscale direct-mail publications will be successful in carrying your story to your fellow entrepreneurs and potential clients.
We are one of you, the entrepreneurial businesses serving this local and/or regional area. We will share our expertise with you and want you to share yours with us.
Virginia Beach businesses, more than 10,000 strong, are receiving this first issue of Main Street. May's issue will be mailed to the 9,500 businesses in Chesapeake, Suffolk, Isle of Wight and Northeastern N.C. June's issue is mailed to the 9,100 businesses in Norfolk and Portsmouth. July will return to Virginia Beach, and the progression continues each month.
If you want to read the two issues for the other cities each quarter, you can do so online at MainStreetTheMagazine.com.
Please tell everyone about us as we tell everyone about you.
Jean Loxley-Barnard has been a writer all her life and studied both sociology and psychology at George Washington University where she earned a B.A. Her company, The Shopper, Inc., encompasses all the Loxley-Barnard family publications - The Shopper Magazines and Doctor to Doctor Magazine. She has been in the advertising, consulting and publishing business for 39 years.