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Thursday
March 28th, 2024

“Businesses that can adapt to this new economy are more likely to thrive,” Boyer said. “And we want you to thrive. We want your businesses to stay functioning and thriving and for people to spend more money with you.”

The tangle of services that offer online business platforms can be overwhelming, including Wordpress, Weebly, Wix, Square, Shopify, Amazon and more. The number of payment tools also can be confusing, from WooCommerce, Authorize.net, Square, Stripe, PayPal, Cash, VenMo and others.

But Boyer urged business owners not to get paralyzed by the numerous options. “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good,” she said.

“Get something up there, get started, don’t go out of business,” she said. “Find a way to communicate what you’re selling so that people can purchase something from you, because they want to buy from you; they just need to know how. Keep working at building your e-commerce presence over time. It doesn’t have to perfect and it doesn’t all have to be up there on day one.”

She noted that while most stay-at-home orders have expired across the country, an online presence is still going to be valuable to most businesses. It may also become critical again in the case of future shutdowns.

“A lot of times when we’re setting up e-commerce, it’s new for everybody,” she said. “It’s new for you as a business owner and it’s new for the customer trying to make an order. I think the most critical piece is to respond to customers as quickly as possible. Even if you can’t give them all the information they need, acknowledge that you received it; let them know you exist, you heard them and it may take a while to get back to them with all the information but you are working on it.”

Establishing a valuable online store could include a lot of work, including gathering images of each product with descriptions, and uploading that information into a website. All of that has to be kept updated, as well.

“As a business owner, you should think about who in your community wants to help you be successful and can do a piece of the puzzle for you,” Boyer said. “Maybe there are current employees who you can re-direct to do this work, or maybe there are local allied businesses that you can partner with. And in a lot of communities there may be students who are looking for experience and have the knowledge to be able to do some of that work.”

In 2015, the Pew Research Center reported that 8 in 10 Americans are online shoppers, and 15% buy products online weekly. Those numbers have likely increased during the pandemic when all Americans – at one point – were under government stay-at-home orders.

It led many businesses to get creative in how they are serving customers, including online sales, curbside pickup, home delivery and email ordering. For businesses, Boyer said it also required a new set of best practices for businesses, including:

  • Communicate clearly. Let customers know you are following guidelines set forth by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and you are telling people exactly what you are doing to be safe in your store
  • Put up signs encouraging social distancing.
  • Make sure your staff is following safety guidelines, such as wearing masks, practicing social distancing, cleaning displays and washing hands.
  • Install clear dividers between staff and customers at checkout stands and other appropriate areas.
  • Disinfect surfaces between customers, and make sure they see you doing it.
  • Check guidelines regularly.
Liberal Local News

Planning, zoning requests dominate commission agenda

city commission manriquezElsa Manriquez with Al Shank Insurance looks over some notes while talking to the Liberal City Commission Tuesday evening about the city’s comprehensive insurance renewal. After several minutes of discussion, the commission ultimately unanimously voted in favor of the renewal. L&T photo/Elly GrimmELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

Planning and zoning issues dominated the discussion for the Liberal City Commission during its most recent meeting Tuesday evening. 

Up first for the commission was a request for the approval of a new member to the Planning & Zoning Commission. 

“Per the agenda packet, there came an open slot on the Planning and Zoning Board due to Ernesto Goitia Jr. being removed due to his lack of attendance, and there ended up being four applications for that spot,” Code Enforcement Supervisor Keith Bridenstine said. “The board voted unanimously to recommend Jeremy Benton to fill that vacant seat, and staff is recommending the Liberal City Commission follow the recommendation of the Planning & Zoning Commission.”

The commission ultimately unanimously approved the recommendation, and then moved on to discussion of the final plat of the Alco Addition replat, which Bridenstine also talked about. 

“As the commission might remember, the preliminary plat came before you all last April, and this is a replat of the block located between 14th Street and 15th Street, which is by Dillons,” Bridenstine said. “The addition was platted as one lot, so in order to split the property into three lots as requested, a replat must be done due to how those rules go. It’s basically a housekeeping plat. All ownership issues have been resolved, it’s been checked out by Seward County officials, and the Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously at its regular scheduled meeting on March 14 to approve the final plat of the Alco Addition. A difference between then and now is the preliminary plat had different ownership since there was a spot that was originally deeded to three different people, and when the new owner bought the block, he got deeded one-third of that chunk, and it was kind of a mess, but all of that has been cleaned up. With all of that we’re recommending the commission approve the final plat of the Alco Addition replat.”

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Other Interests

NATIONAL HEADLINES

Opinion

Living with a cat

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

 

We have had our adopted Mexican street cat, Felix, for a month now.

“Has he bulked out?” I asked my husband, Peter, as we watched Felix, standing on his back legs and walloping the tattered mouse hanging from his sisal scratching post. Felix looked like a boxer, beating the remaining stuffing out of his helpless little toy mouse. Bits of fur and mouse innards were strewn around the kitchen. But the carnage was not limited to the kitchen.

Living with a cat, you start to eye gravity with suspicion. Small items that appeared to be securely in place must be scrutinized, as if living under the imminent threat of a major earthquake. Living with a cat is like living in a spaceship. Items cannot be expected to remain where they are put. Everything needs to be put inside something else to prevent it from floating away or, more accurately, being batted around the house at 3 a.m.

The sink stopper is missing. The spare tip to Peter’s hiking pole has mysteriously disappeared. Socks appear in surprising locations.

“What happened to my cough drops?” I asked Peter.

I keep a little bowl of cough drops on my bedside table. While all of Peter’s possessions were knocked to the ground in a perfunctory manner in the first few days of Felix taking residence, I was feeling somewhat smug because my personal items remained untouched. Until yesterday. There were cough drops beside the bed, under the bed, under the nightstand and under my desk in the next room.

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