“Onalaska is very small and we don’t have a lot of brick and mortar fronts. We just figured out we’re not in competition with each other. We can do more if we support each other,” Pamela Jackson, a representative of the Onalaska Small Business Alliance, told the Livingston Lions Club recently.
Jackson said the Alliance started after COVID – July 1, 2022 to be specific – with five ladies who said ‘we have to do something.’
They started a Facebook group, invited everyone to join and went from five people to 18 small businesses.
“We want you to promote your business,” Jackson said, adding that the Alliance has no board and no bank account, but promotes local first, along with lots of networking and referrals.
“There were 70 businesses represented at the last meeting,” Jackson said, referring to the group’s monthly ‘meet and greets’ with participants running the gamut from cottage bakers to bee keepers.
“The first year we were formed, we had a few winners in the Best of Polk County contest, then even more the following year,” Jackson said.
Along with other members of the Alliance, Jackson also supports the Lake Livingston Small Business Alliance, which has a Facebook group in which about 6,000 people post, she said.
“Shop Small Polk County is our latest project. It is a directory that’s accessed through a QR code. It also has a ‘what’s happening around the lake’ section for events.
“Onalaska is growing fast. We want to retain that small town feeling while enhancing new growth,” Jackson said. “We just hosted the third annual Onalaska Small Business Alliance Art Walk. We have food truck Fridays with live music and yard games and we’re currently collaborating with Livingston Main Street on an Art Walk/Sip and Stroll.”
