Something out of nothing!

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Small-biz fortunes mixed here

A national small-business consortium reports business confidence is on the uptick, but some of Tucson's entrepreneurs aren't so sure.

According to the National Federation of Independent Business, the Small Business Optimism Index edged up 1.6 points in May to 92.2 - the highest rating since September 2008.
Some business owners are feeling the improvement in Tucson, but others say the confidence isn't resonating here.

"I haven't seen a lot of improvement, but I haven't seen it going the other way," said Beverly Moe, business-license supervisor for the city of Tucson.
In May (398), business-license applications dropped slightly from the previous month (436), while May cancellations (228) rose from April (182).
A look at how four local small businesses fared in May:

Something out of nothing
Heather Robinson, who runs the home-furnishings recycling business Refused Reused refusedreused.com , said May was a particularly good month for her business.

"It does seem like it's changed," Robinson said. "For a while there, we weren't sure what we were going to be doing, but things picked up."

Robinson, 31, reached out to animal-focused organizations, including the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, which started placing orders for leather pet ponchos and dog bandannas, which Robinson and her mother, Jan, fashioned from furniture leather donated by the U.S. House of Representatives. Heather Robinson said she expects the Humane Society's store at Park Place will begin selling the ponchos and bandannas by the end of the month.
Heather Robinson said she hopes the revenue from the ponchos allows her to open a physical store and hire employees within the next year.

No end in sight
Financial consultant Andrew Avella, who runs the local business social networking site MyTucsonBiz.com, said the dark clouds hanging over the local small-business sector aren't showing signs of parting.

Avella, 43, said he used to help many clients who had lost their jobs with retirement-account rollovers, but now they're more interested in pulling their money out of their accounts despite the hefty tax penalties.

"I really don't think that confidence has boosted up," he said. "I think we've kind of hit a new level where people have adjusted their living expenses and have found a new way to live and maintain a lower cost of living."

He said it doesn't take a report or armchair analysis to take a read of the local economy.
"All you have to do is look at the landscape and see businesses that are closing," he said. "People can't afford to go out to eat or get their car washed. Instead, they're doing it themselves."

The dead zone
Bob Kirlin, owner of Furniture Plus, 2801 E. Grant Road, laughs off news reports that say the economy has recovered. He bluntly said, "It's dead."

"When on TV they say everything's getting better, it's not getting better for me," said Kirlin, 61, who sells new and used furniture at the shop he's run for six years.
He said his Craigslist sales account for a quarter of his business, and that sector continues to thrive, but he relies on walk-ins for the majority of his sales.

Kirlin said his own small-business-owner confidence index will improve in August, when college students return to town. He said August is always his top month of the year.
"Summer is always slow. August always goes crazy."

May flowers
University Perfumes, which opened in November near the University of Arizona, fell right in line with the Small Business Optimism Index increase.
"May was our best month since we've opened," said owner Adrienne Leary, 31, who runs the shop with boyfriend/business partner Shane Barela.

"It beat December. Word of mouth spread like crazy, and I hear from customers that they want to shop local, with us, (rather) than department stores. They'd rather support UA grads than a big corporation."

The business increase coincided with an April change in the sign logo, in which Leary and Barela added the words "Your neighborhood perfume shop."

Business at the shop, at 800 E. University Blvd., has understandably slowed down since school got out, but Leary said she's hoping to be able to hire some staff later this year so she and Barela don't have to work every day.

"I think the economy is still the same, although I think more people who were laid off from jobs are getting hired," she said. "It's been a rough year for everyone, but we're still in business so that's a good sign."
Contact reporter Phil Villarreal at pvillarreal@azstarnet.com or 573-4130.