Lake County discusses resources for small business

Like a lot of communities, for Lake County, small businesses are at its heart.”Oh, they’re essential,” said Meg Brew, director of economic development for Lake County. “Our downtown could not survive without the small businesses,” said Marie Aliberti, president and CEO of the Lake Eustis Area Chamber of Commerce. According to the Small Business Administration’s 2024 profile for the state of Florida, more than 50 percent of employees in Lake County worked at small businesses. The county says it doesn’t keep a running list of business openings and closures, so it’s hard to say how many have come and gone. We spoke with a woman who owned a small business in Mount Dora for nearly two decades. She closed the business at the end of March. It was called One Flight Up Cafe. “I always say we’re like a Starbucks meets Panera Bread with beer and wine,” said Judy Ransanici, the owner. Ransanici said she got the idea to open the business just after moving to Mount Dora in 2007 and seeing an empty balcony. “I’m like, why aren’t people sitting on that balcony and enjoying that beautiful balcony?” she said.She said she contacted the leasing agent the next day.”We got a lease and started the journey. Yeah. It was a good journey,” Ransanici said.But that ended when the cafe closed. One Flight Up was doing fine, but she wanted to retire.”I was trying to sell the business. I had people lined up, actually,” she said.But she said the sale didn’t work out because of a leasing issue.While the balcony seems to be sitting empty once again, not many businesses see a run as successful as Ransanici’s. “The statistics around small businesses are that 20 percent don’t make it past the first year, about half will close within the first five years, and then only one in three will make it past the 10-year mark,” Brew, with Lake County Economic Development, said. Brew says the county works to help businesses open and stay open. “In Lake County, because we value small businesses so much, we really try to build an ecosystem of support around them,” Brew said.That ecosystem includes small business development centers and working with UCF and the city of Eustis on a business incubator. They also have a public-private partnership with LEAD, Lake Economic Area Development. Brew said they have a full-time person who is dedicated to business retention and expansion.”We kind of try to attack it from a lot of different angles, and we really encourage any of our business owners who feel like they need extra support to reach out,” Brew said. The type of support they need can depend on what part of the county they’re in.In downtown Eustis, Chamber president Aliberti said businesses can struggle with getting enough foot traffic. So, the chamber has tried launching events, like a monthly Sunset Sip and Stroll, which they tried a few months this year.”Anything we can do to help support this business community, the downtown business community. Others also should look at coming in and offering suggestions or assistance to make sure that these people can thrive because if they don’t, they’ll close up shop and you’ll have another empty storefront,” Aliberti said. “We all need to work together to make sure that economically we’re going to still be here in five years or 10 years,” she said. And though Ransanici’s small business journey ended after about 18 years, she said she’d do it all over again — despite the difficulties. “It is a little bit of a challenge like anywhere. So it has to be a labor of love,” she said.

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