Small Businesses Struggling

AUSTIN - Local business owners are desperately trying to draw in shoppers so it's not rare these days to walk down Austin streets and see sales and clearance signs at every shop.

The Mode boutique in East Austin is taking it a step further. Mode co-owner Jenn Shull calls it the "name your price" sale. She says if an item is $29 and someone offers her $14, she'll take it.

Shull and her sister opened mode about 14 months ago.

"If i had known the economy was going to change the way it did, I probably would not have done this" says Shull. She says around last November her sales took a turn for the worse, she even says repeat customers are scared to spend.

Mode owners are not alone, just down the street at Capital Pedicab business is also slow.

Pedicab driver Russell Williams says "Not as many people are going out, it's the lack of money."

Jeanette Peten is with Business Investment Growth or BIG Austin, an organization that helps entrepreneurs open and maintain their business. She says across the board it's bad news.

"Folks that are in business are tightening up their belt" says Peten.

According to Peten about 20% of the Travis County workforce is employed by small, local shops including restaurants.
 

It is why BIG Austin has set up a business plan contest for current entrepreneurs. The small business that wins the award gets ten thousand dollars in cash and prizes. For some that's the difference between closing and staying afloat.

For some stores like Cowboy Cool downtown the help did not come soon enough. They are closing their doors at the end of the February. It is exactly what Mode owners want to avoid.
 

"Who isn't scared?" Shull asks.  "Even if you have a job the likelihood of keeping that is up in the air. No one wants to spend money they may not have."
 

That is why she will continue to make it easier for everyone who walks through her doors. It's a sale made and a bargain for customers