Small businesses make Caribou strong

To the editor:
    National Small Business Week is next week: April 21-25th! When you go to work, who are your neighbors? We need to celebrate those businesses in our community which are our backbone.     Small business accounts for 25.8 million “businesses” in the United States we’re told … they create 75 percent of all the new jobs across the country, and collectively represent 99.7 percent of all “employer firms.”
    The Caribou Chamber of Commerce and Industry has just under 40 active loan clients in Caribou: businesses – in business – doing business, paying bills, paying taxes and struggling. We have just over 230 members, and we believe there are approximately 470 businesses in Caribou: including farmers, hairdressers, “crafters,” and daycare providers (those business people without “storefronts” if you will).
    A Caribou City Councilor recently spoke to me about the “us” and “them” syndrome – and asked me my opinion. First, the CCC&I officially only has the opinions our members decide upon. Second (unofficially) by all accounts, it seems to me we might just be perpetuating that concept (us and them) … I do not believe any councilor has ever run who doesn’t have the same end goal: public service. Surely the ideal that we are all trying to do our part to make a better community is the over-riding factor, whether as councilors, as municipal employees, as boards, or as clubs and organizations. Don’t we want to work together?
    There seems to be a trend in the community to minimize our small businesses and their tax dollars. I was recently told there haven’t been any new businesses in our town the last two or three years, and the only new businesses coming to the area are in another neighboring town (which reportedly doesn’t have any empty buildings on its “main drag”).
    We have the same goal – I know we do — I see it every day with our 150th committee. We have more peoplewithin that “committee” who see a common good – ourselves, and look past the derisiveness to a Caribou they are proud to be a part of. We need to stop arguing, and remember we’re all on the same side. We need our small business people, and we need to focus our energies on growing together – and helping our small businesses grow (they are out there)!
    So join us … stop, and congratulate just one small business owner (I believe we will each come across many any given day of the week), for their continuing contribution to our community. We are all on the same side!
Wendy Landes
CCC&I Business Developer