Of the past 5 years, in many ways 2024 was the most challenging for our small businesses. For many small businesses cash flow was highly erratic and unpredictable and runways exhausted. With limited bandwidth, small businesses continued to innovate and operate with limited resources and with little assistance while costs of labor, real estate, inventory and raw materials soared.

Our purpose at Bricks Need Mortar is to facilitate and support collaboration and innovation amongst brick and mortar small businesses. We work to raise the visibility of each participating business and this community as a whole, through advocacy with policy makers, in partnership with other organizations and community organizations and directly to consumers with marketing. We work to forge a community of practice by facilitating connection through our Shop Talks and through engagement in numerous forums to ensure that the brick and mortar small businesses that make Portland inspiring are seen, heard and represented.

Below are key efforts and accomplishments where Bricks Need Mortar served this community.

1. Collaboration with Travel Portland For our May 2024 Shop Talk, we worked with Travel Portland to conduct their first ever retail focused Pulse Check, where we heard from Travel Portland CMO Greg Newland on their efforts to drive tourism and foot traffic. Importantly, Travel Portland listened to and acted on the needs of the small businesses, resulting in updated marketing materials and social strategy.

2. Retail Shop Tours From the Travel Portland Pulse Check, we worked with Travel Portland and Pacific NW Experience to organize and deliver familiarization tours. In August we worked with Travel Portland Visitor Center to bring their staff, Downtown sidewalk ambassadors and concierges on a tour of NW 23rd Ave Bricks Need Mortar member retailers. In October we worked with PNW Experience to bring tour operators and other visitor facing professionals on a tour of Bricks Need Mortar member retailers on Mississippi Ave. We are planning on more tours in 2025.

3. Lobbying for Small Business Support for Extreme Weather Events After the devastating early 2024 winter storms that shut down businesses, we set to work to find relief for small businesses. We worked with Oregon Rep Nosse and Portland Office of Government Relations on LC 1946 for UI for extreme weather events! This is a massive accomplishment initiated by Bricks Need Mortar. And we just received word that this has now been submitted in time for pre-session filing and is now now HB 2125. We will be working with Rep Nosse and Portland’s Government Office of Government Relations to get this much needed relief for small businesses and their employees who are impacted by extreme weather events. We will continue to work on this bill through 2025.

4. Independent + Small Shops Proclamation We submitted the Independent + Small Shops Proclamation and worked with Mayor Wheeler’s office to sponsor this effort. This was strategically designed to create visibility for our small businesses and reminding individuals that small businesses provide community, inspiration, comfort and connection post election and well in advance of the holiday shopping season. The Proclamation was announced with a press conference with Mayor Wheeler and several community small business owners, who shared their passion and commitment to Portland. This was well attended and received significant news coverage from OPB, PBJ and local news outlets.

5. Hosted and Facilitated Community Session with Commissioner Carmen Rubio With persistent engagement with Commissioner Rubio’s office, we organized a Shop Talk listening session, with the Commissioner tasked with overseeing Prosper Portland, Venture Portland and support of small businesses. Commissioner Rubio, a front runner for Mayor, sat through a meeting that went overtime to hear every single attendee share their concerns, needs and hopes for the year ahead.

6. Facilitated small business support from PEMO We worked to provide support for disenfranchised small businesses in the SW end of downtown, who were experiencing significant and reoccurring crime and dangerous activities. We facilitated and convened meetings with PEMO to ensure these businesses were seen, heard and for their safety and livability needs to be immediately addressed.

7. Conducting 5 Years of We Are Here We have conducted 5 years of surveys to provide small businesses with peer data and use that data to advocate for you in pursuit of public policy and healthy environment essential to the success of your business. Our next survey will be out soon. Make sure your voice is heard.

8. Actively Engaged in Stakeholder Groups Bricks Need Mortar has engaged in nearly every stakeholder group tasked with addressing Portland’s economic recover. It was important to us to ensure that brick and mortar and retail enterprises are included and prioritized in Recovery and Economic Development efforts from Reimagine Portland to Governor Kotek’s Task Force Visioning Group.

9. Provided Professional Marketing Education Session Bricks Need Mortar responds to the needs of small businesses by identifying experienced professional service providers and hiring them to conduct learning sessions like the Small Business Marketing Best Practices session with Ryan Haskins. We continue to build our roster of experienced and knowledgeable professional service providers and provide you with high value learning opportunities.
   
   
10. Fostering a Community of Collaboration There is only so far that we can go alone but together we can go far. It is this philosophy that drives us to lift this entire community as a whole. This year we partnered with Powell’s Books to drive their thousands of customers to visit other small businesses during the holiday season. We came together as a community to support Portland Center Stage, donating 10% of membership to this essential arts organization, sponsoring the Liberace & Liza production and providing Bricks Need Mortar members and all of their employees with free tickets to every 24-25 PCS Season production.

These are just our top 10 Accomplishments for 2024
We look forward to returning in the New Year to work together to make Portland a place where your business and this community can thrive.

Wishing you a peaceful, happy

and healthy end of the year!

Sarah & The Bricks Need Mortar Team

As we come out of an uncertain year the one certainty is that the path to fully reopening The We Are Here 2023 survey explores employment, crime, revenue, solutions and needs for reporting Portland brick and mortar small businesses. Businesses include restaurant, retail and service sectors.

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As we enter a new year with new challenges, it’s important to make note of our accomplishments and how we can build upon them to make the greatest and most meaningful impact moving forward.

Bricks Need Mortar was born from the pandemic to bring our small businesses together in community over competition, to increase visibility and be seen by both, policy makers and customers. We advocate for smart policy and much needed supports for this community, the backbone of our economy.

As a support organization Bricks Need Mortar’s mission is to provide wrap-around support for your small businesses beginning with increased visibility to your small businesses. It can be easy to overlook our accomplishments as our focus is on you. Wrapping up another difficult year, we take note of our achievements to build upon them and best serve you as we continue to forge forward in 2022.

1.- Launching Shop Talks  – As we emerged from years of pandemic restrictions, the desire for in person connection directed us to convert some of our monthly programming to in person meetings. Shop Talk is designed to bring our brick and mortar small businesses together to discuss common concerns, challenges and opportunities. 

2.- Travel Portland President’s Award – Travel Portland acknowledged Bricks Need Mortar and founder Sarah Shaoul for efforts to advance Portland Community through pursuit of partnership and initiatives in support of Portland’s small business.

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3.- We Are Here 2022 Look Book and 2024 Look Forward Survey -Each year we survey Portland’s small businesses to get a read on the health of this community. We share with you so you can see where you stand in relation to your peers and we share with policy makers to help them understand the priorities and needs of Portland’s small businesses. This directs our programming and further supports our advocacy efforts.

4.- Fighting Small Business Crime -The We Are Here Survey revealed the shocking statistic that 79% of our small brick and mortar businesses had been broken into and/or vandalized in 2022. This propelled us into engagement with PEMO, Public Environment Management Office, to connect businesses to resources for addressing crime and improving conditions and accessing resources to limit and address crime. We also engaged with ORCAOR, Oregon Retail Crime Association, to ensure that small businesses are included in efforts to identify and prosecute those engaged in organized crime. Bricks Need Mortar was invited to speak on Think Out Loud to share the small business crime data we collected, increasing our visibility as a small brick and mortar coalition.

5.- #PDXUNITES We continue to collaborate with Unitus Community Credit Union on weekly $100 gift card giveaways to small, brick and mortar businesses, increasing visibility and driving foot traffic. From the beginning of the pandemic to now, we’ve helped Unitus CCU give away over $20K to be spent at small businesses.

6.- Small Business Stimulus Distribution -worked with Worksystems to expand the delivery of  federal stimulus to Portlanders to be spent only at Portland small businesses. 

7.- Paid Worker Program  -worked with Worksystems and PCC to match small, brick and mortar businesses with workers that would be paid by the program, providing an approx $5K -$12K benefit for each participating small business.

8.- Win Big 2023 + Win Big App  We continue to review, learn and adjust the Win Big Holiday Campaign, bringing small businesses together to amplify the message to shop small, while delivering a fun and rewarding experience for holiday shoppers winning over 100 prizes. We reached beyond Portland to draw more shoppers and foot traffic into Portland to play. We also invested in development of the new Win Big Shop Small App, in order to make it easier for customers to discover participating small businesses and track raffle entries. We worked with key partners Travel Portland, Downtown Retail Council and other community partners to make this effort possible.

9.- Discover the Heart of Portland Shopping Guides We continue to produce and distribute the small business specific Portland evergreen shopping guide, organized by neighborhood. Working with our Community Partner, Morel Ink, we are able to distribute 20K guides through participating small businesses, area hotels, The Travel Portland Visitor Center and Travel Oregon Visitor Center at PDX Airport. 

10.- Recommended Professional Resource Providers – in an effort to strengthen this community, through collaboration, Bricks Need Mortar has identified and vetted high value professional service providers, negotiating special rates whenever possible and learning opportunities so you have trusted professionals to turn to to help you maintain and grow your small business.

11.- Learning Sessions and Panel Discussions – We continue to program important growth and learning opportunities on timely topics like HR Session on the new Paid Leave Oregon + Oregon Saves and Bringing Your A Game for The Holidays and Beyond.

12.- Governor Brown’s Downtown Task Force – Sarah Shaoul was a solely focused voice advocating for Portland’s entire small business community participating in the Vision Committee Subgroup of Governor Kotek’s Downtown Task Force.

Photo by Kim Oanh Nguyen @photosbykim

Bricks Need Mortar founder and CEO, Sarah Shaoul, has been awarded Travel Portland’s President’s Award for leadership, innovation and support of Portland’s small business community.

The award was presented by Travel Portland President, Jeff Miller and Portland Mayor, Ted Wheeler.

Inspiring key notes were delivered by NPR host and correspondent, Ari Shapiro, and Oregon Governor, Tina Kotek.

Photo by Kim Oanh Nguyen @photosbykim

In receiving the award, Shaoul shares: 
“I am honored to be recognized by Travel Portland for work to ensure the success of our small business community. 

While I’m outspoken about what I believe in, I don’t really seek out personal recognition, nor am I motivated by that. So, I must share with you the gravity of how touched I was to be on stage be recognized for this work!

Connecting and collaborating with the Travel Portland team over the past 3+ years has truly been an honor because Travel Portland, in my own humble opinion, is doing some of the most impactful work to keep Portland the most wonderful place to live, work, play and visit!

And of course, that work is no 1 individual’s or organization’s accomplishment. As the awards event highlights so beautifully, it is the work and passion of so many that make Portland the amazing place it is!

It is truly the efforts of the hundreds of innovative, fun, creative, and inspiring small businesses who make this wonderful place where people come to fall in love with Portland.”

Photo by Kim Oanh Nguyen @photosbykim

As we’ve now compiled data for 3 years, comparing data from one year to the next reveals some important differences worth noting. Small business crime has increased significantly from 63% to 79%, while small businesses made cuts to employee healthcare benefits. We encourage you to view the 2022 We Are Here report side by side with the 2021 We Are Here report. 

And in 2022 we see that holiday and annual sales data remain largely consistent with the majority of sales happening in-store.

While there are some hopeful signs of growth and some small businesses reporting increases in revenue, the open comments sections reveal significant challenges and pain in the small business community.

Key survey input to share:

There needs to be a grand grant/financial support/thank you from the city for those of us that have put our business on the front lines for the community to still have a place they hold safe, when we have put our own lives + livelihoods in the hands of Portland Proper…

We need BIG leadership, I think. We need someone really focusing on cost of living or bringing new money into our local economy. We need the public to hear over and over and over again to get out of their house, walk their neighborhood streets, go and spend money in local businesses. And we need police, graffiti and trash clean up, fair parking enforcement, homelessness to be addressed, etc. etc. etc.

Rent continues to increase despite all the hardships that operating in a pandemic, recession and increased crime. This is another hit that pushes businesses to close (we may be forced to close soon!)

Small business/home owners pay a lot in taxes and are royally getting screwed in this city! Would love to see policy makers actually helping keep small businesses around rather than running them out of town!

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These surveys are a massive undertaking and we appreciate every small business owner who took the time to share their experience and their data in an effort to build community so together we can be stronger and show that We Are Here.

Please consider becoming a Bricks Need Mortar member today and support this important work so we can continue to advocate for this community!

A big event with big numbers

We invite you to review the data and input in the 2022 Shop Small Win Big Holiday Campaign report. We continue to learn from each event, the participating businesses and those shoppers who come out to play. We incorporate all this learning into our planning for this year so we can improve and build on this campaign to incentivize and amplify the important action to SHOP SMALL!

BIG THANKS to all the sponsors who make Shop Small Win Big possible!

Morel Ink • Travel Portland • Central Eastside Industrial Council • Kuto • Lime• Legwork Local Delivery • Prosper Portland • Point West Credit Union • Unitus Community Credit Union • The Oregonian • Portland Business Alliance • Cloud City Realty • Venture Portland • Willamette Week • Out Front Media • The Adrift Hotel • Kickstand Comedy • The Jupiter Hotel and Jupiter NextPortland • Center Stage • Miller Paint • Mississippi Studios and Revolution Hall • The Mark Spencer Hotel • The Patricia Reser Center • Inn at Northrup Station • Bons Amis • Water Closet Media • Sustainable Restaurant Group • Business for a Better Portland

As we enter a new year with new challenges, it’s important to make note of our accomplishments and how we can build upon them to make the greatest and most meaningful impact moving forward.

YOU and YOUR BUSINESS are at the center of all we do. As a support organization we aim to highlight your businesses. It can be easy to overlook our accomplishments as our focus is on the very small businesses that create community. 

Wrapping up another difficult year, we take note of our achievements in the past year to build upon them and best serve you as we continue to forge forward in 2023.

1. We worked with members to host a Retail Specific DEI Training specifically designed for small businesses. Coming together we were able to offer 2 separate session dates of this 2 day training that offered an affordable DEI training for small businesses and their staff. Feedback from this event was overwhelmingly positive. 

“I loved that it was all local businesses and that we were able to use concrete examples for learning. Previous trainings I’ve done have not been as relatable.”

2. Bricks Need Mortar worked with Worksystems on the Paid Worker Program to advise on the program while helping small businesses participate in receiving up to 2 paid workers earning $17/hour for up to 300 hours + $1K bonus. We will continue to be involved in this program into 2023.
 

3. Bricks Need Mortar Public Affairs Engagement:

• Meeting with Prosper Portland to ensure that the needs of small businesses are understood and reflected in the City Budget Proposal. As Portland City Council moved forward a budget with no allocations for small businesses, Bricks Need Mortar fought for targeted and increased funding for small businesses. We are certain that without our input allocations would have been significantly lower.
• Engaging with Mayor’s Office, City Council and County Chair Offices on the urgent need to address and mitigate crimes on small businesses. Through our surveys we were able to provide eye opening statistics on small businesses that otherwise was not being tracked. We offered new ideas for mitigating crime and will continue to press for those to be adopted and enacted. This is why surveys are crucial. Please take a moment to fill out this year’s survey linked below.
• Met with Tina Kotek Campaign to ensure that they understand the great challenges and needs of our small business community.Not all businesses are alike. We emphasized that small businesses are important for our economy and our communities and deserving of recognition and support.
• Participated in Panel Discussion on the Future of Retail hosted by CREW (Women in Commercial Real Estate). As the only small business advocate on the panel, Bricks Need Mortar pressed for more shared responsibility between commercial landlords and tenants and that recovery would be swifter with more proactive and creative measures of support from property owners. 
• Participated in efforts to renegotiate City of Portland’s delivery service caps. During the pandemic, City of Portland temporarily capped delivery fees charged to small businesses at 10%. As the cap was expiring, delivery companies and their lobbyists pressed City officials to lift the cap. We worked with others to inform policy makers and work for a more equitable fee structure.

4. We successfully proposed and lobbied City of Portland to designate $.5M to distribute federal relief dollars to Portlanders that could only be spent at small businesses. With the City of Portland receiving millions of dollars in CARES ACT and ARPA funding we made sure that some of this funding would go to small businesses. 

5. Hosted a Candidate Forum to bring Portland City Council and Multnomah County Chair candidates together to discuss the needs and challenges of our small business community and hear the solutions that these candidates intend to pursue in support of small businesses.

6. Delivering timely learning sessions and panel discussions to help improve your efforts, efficiencies and impact to your bottom line. From Creating Strong Brand Photography to Understanding Consumer Behavior, we curated important learning sessions and panel discussions for you to learn and take back to your own businesses.

7. Conducting surveys and sharing easy to digest infographic data on the health of our small business community. We share these with policy makers and with you so you know where you stand in relation to your peers, noting the ever changing environment and realities of conducting business in these times. Link to annual survey is below.

8. Bringing Small Businesses together for the expanded Shop Small Win Big holiday campaign that included robust paid social media, multiple billboards around the city, participation that increased 3x over 2021, support from Travel Portland, Prosper Portland, CEIC, Morel Ink and many others. We printed 20K shopping guides which are distributed in businesses and hotels across the city. Additionally, we surveyed participating businesses and shoppers to learn how we can continue to improve the campaign and inform our focus for professional development offerings in 2022. Stay tuned for our upcoming series of events and holiday campaign report coming out next week.

9. Conducted coaching sessions in group and one on one to provide ongoing support and experienced insight for your businesses. We provide retail specific small business coaching and professional referrals for more specific small business needs. We continue to build out our professional service provider offerings to make it affordable and accessible.

“Your tax professional referral tracked down a bit over $61K for us – a shit ton of money we could use right now! Thanks for connecting us with her!”

10. Maintain the Visibility of the Small Business Community in Press and Amongst Consumers. We provide press with important information about the health of the small business community, while maintaining a positive message about the importance of small businesses to the community at large. With strategic partnerships like #pdxunites we also work to reward consumers in supporting small businesses. In 2022 we worked with Unitus Community Credit Union to give away $7K in small business gift certificates, encouraging people to discover new businesses and choose to shop small.

We’ve learned a lot and as a membership organization we’re accountable only to you and your small businesses. As a member driven organization we are more swift and agile and that’s how we are effective in moving the needle for this community. All of this work is made possible by everyone who chips in as a Bricks Need Mortar member to be in community to strengthen our ecosystem of brick and mortar businesses.

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We are excited about the programming we have planned for 2023. Programming is directed by your input and requests. We receive these 2 ways:

1. Direct input from Conversations
Please join us at our first meeting of the year to be held Thursday, January 26th 9am-10am at Steeplejack Brewing on NE Broadway. This meeting is open to BNM members and all small business owners who are interested. There is no charge for attending. Please rsvp, so we can reserve an appropriate sized room. Please join us! This is your chance to influence this year’s goals and actions.

2. Survey Response Data
Please fill out the 2022 in Review 2023 Look Ahead Survey TODAY! One individual will be chosen at random to win a $100 small shops big hearts gift card redeemable at over 1,000 Portland small businesses! Fill out the survey TODAY!

Be well and be together!
Sarah

As we close in on 2 years operating under a global pandemic it’s important to take a look at what we’ve accomplished and where we can best make an impact moving forward.

Bricks Need Mortar was born from the pandemic to bring our small businesses together in community over competition, to increase visibility and be seen by both, policy makers and customers. We advocate for smart policy and much needed supports for this community, the backbone of our economy.

As a support organization Bricks Need Mortar’s mission is to provide wrap-around support for your small businesses beginning with increased visibility to your small businesses. It can be easy to overlook our accomplishments as our focus is on you. Wrapping up another difficult year, we take note of our achievements to build upon them and best serve you as we continue to forge forward in 2022.

1.- We worked with Oregon Representative Nosse and our partners at Oregon Small Businesses United (OSBU) to successfully pass legislation to extend the repayment deadline for the deferred commercial repayment period to allow for more time for federal relief dollars to reach your small businesses.

2.- We hosted a call with Sen Ron Wyden and Bricks Need Mortar members to share the immediate and longterm needs of our members. We continue to stay engaged with Sen Wyden’s staff following up on your requests.

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3.- We partnered with Kuto to create the first of its kind alternative to corporate gift cards, a single gift card that can be used at now over 400 small businesses. In our 2020 Portland Pledge Holiday campaign we heard from small business supporters that they wanted to give a universal small business gift card where people had a variety of choices of where it can be spent. We found that partner and made it happen.

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4.- We proposed a stimulus program to give federal dollars to Portlanders that could only be spent at small businesses. With the City of Portland receiving Millions of dollars in CARES ACT and ARPA funding we made sure that as much of this funding would go to our
small businesses. In September we worked with partners BBPDX, PSU, Kuto and City of Portland to successfully deploy $30K in stimulus to PSU students to spend only in small businesses. This program was successful and will extend into 2022.

5.- We serve on task force & action tables and engage with policy makers at the City, County, State and Federal levels advocating for and representing your small businesses and fighting for equitable access to capital, commercial rent relief, replenishing grant programs and sharing perspective on meaningful policy action.

6.- Working with the Governor’s office and OHA to deploy $10K in small business gift card incentives to encourage people to get vaccinated.

7.- Delivering timely learning sessions and panel discussions to help improve your efforts, efficiencies and impact to your bottom line.

8.- Conducting surveys and sharing easy to digest infographic data on the health of our small business community. We share these with policy makers and with you so you know where you stand in relation to your peers, noting the ever changing environment and realities of conducting business in these times. Next survey out next week.

9.- Bringing Small Businesses together for the Small Shops Big Hearts holiday campaign that included robust paid social media, 5 billboards around the city, OPB radio ads, support from Travel Portland, Venture Portland and our hotels. We surveyed participating businesses and have learned a lot about how and why it worked very well for many and what needs to happen to make it work well for everyone, which will inform our focus for professional development offerings in 2022. Stay tuned for our upcoming series of events.

10.- Conducted coaching sessions in group and one on one to provide ongoing support and experienced perspectives to your businesses. We’ve learned a lot and as a membership organization we’re accountable only to you and your small businesses. As a member driven organization, we are more swift and agile and that’s how we are effective in moving the needle for this community. All of this work was made possible by everyone who chips in as a Bricks Need Mortar member to be in community to strengthen our ecosystem of brick and mortar businesses.

We’ve learned a lot and as a membership organization we’re accountable only to you and your small businesses. As a member driven organization we are more swift and agile and that’s how we are effective in moving the needle for this community. All of this work was made possible by everyone who chips in as a Bricks Need Mortar member to be in community to strengthen our ecosystem of brick and mortar businesses.

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