Small biz whizzes
Owners of small joints like the Coney Island Bar, Black and White Books and Shelly’s True Value Hardware have turned their businesses into local institutions
But in terms of self-satisfaction and contribution to the community, the task couldn’t be more important. Small businesses (less than 500 employees) make up 95.7 percent of the businesses that are hiring employees in Nevada, according to the Small Business Association’s 2001 Small Business Profile for Nevada. Nearly 45 percent of the state’s workers labor for small businesses.
“[Small business] is an economic engine indispensable to Nevada’s well-being,” states the SBA report. “Small businesses are job generators and innovators.”
What does it take to turn a mom-and-pop shop into a Reno/Sparks institution? We talked to the owners of three such enterprises to see how they’ve done it.
Messing around at the Coney Island Bar