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North Iredell business owners get it together

By Bethany Fuller | Statesville R&L

Published: April 4, 2009

A small group of North Iredell business owners is organizing a networking group to promote local businesses within the area and around the county.

The newly formed North Iredell Business Partnership is designed to act as an informal chamber of commerce to drum up support for its members and some of the lesser-known businesses in the community.

"We got a lot of great people," said Jody McMillan, one of the organizers. "People who want to share what they do."

Around 12 people have signed up so far, McMillan said. The group is pretty informal right now, but its long-term goals include trade shows featuring area businesses and maybe even a gallery crawl with local artisans.

McMillan said the idea behind the organization started out as a "Friends of the Garden" bulletin board in her business, Jody's Garden Bakery. It eventually evolved into a possible women's business group at the suggestion of her friend Cora Stroud, owner of Serendipity Antiques.

Ultimately, organizers decided to set up something intimate, but all-inclusive.

Even before the first meeting on March 21, McMillan, Stroud and the owners of The Old Farm Garden were holding small events to promote each other's business.

"Anything you can do to promote yourself and grow is a good thing," McMillan said.

The NIBP doesn't have a membership fee at this time, and most meetings are pretty casual get-togethers in McMillan's Harmony Highway bakery. Usually, some kind of cake or refreshments are involved with the meetings.

Stroud said there are a lot of small businesses around Harmony that not a lot of people know about.
"It doesn't make sense to have businesses that are losing business to Statesville and the surrounding area because their neighbors don't know they are there," she said. "There are a lot of neat things around the area and we will see what happens with them."

McMillan said she hopes the group can generate enough interest to partner with other organizations, such as the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce.

The next meeting is at 6 p.m. April 16 at Jody's Garden Bakery.