Katrina Back in Biz Followup

On the year anniversary of Katrina, Yahoo Small Business’ resident Louisiana native reflects on the year that has passed and the challenges that lie ahead for the Gulf Coast’s residents, including their many small business owners. Last April Yahoo! Small Business hosted an event to help facilitate small business recovery in the Gulf Coast, and today we look at where some of those small businesses are today with their recovery efforts. Here are stories on three Gulf Coast entrepreneurs we were privileged to meet in April:

Robert Turner is a New Orleans antiques dealer specializing in Chinese furniture, much of which he personally selected on visits to China. Though luckily his shop did not experience physical damage from Katrina, the economic hit has nonetheless been severe. Post-Katrina, their reliable tourist business has dropped off significantly, while many local shoppers are waiting to buy, pending progress on rebuilding. Their new e-commerce Web site, www.silkroadcollection.com, with free services from Yahoo! Small Business and e-commerce developers Solid Cactus, is central to their business survival strategy.

Before Katrina, jewelry designer Sommer L’Hoste was researching getting her business online, but did not consider it to be an urgent priority. After the storm, she lost many of her local customers, and so she needed a Web site more than ever. The Yahoo! Back in Business Event provided Syble Fine Jewelry with a customizable online store, domain name, and support, and with that, the ability to begin receiving orders from national customers. This event “gave life to my business at a time that it would have surely failed,” says L’Hoste.

Authorized Optics CEO Chris Wisecarver worked for 23 years running the family industrial chemical company just west of New Orleans. He didn’t want to get “left in the dust” by technologies such as e-commerce, so he dipped his toe in e-commerce and opened an optics store. After Katrina, he took a step back to reconsider his life decisions and decided he wanted to be in a business that is independent from physical dangers such as hurricanes. He is handing over the reigns of the chemical business to his brothers, and he is planning to go into e-commerce full-time. With e-commerce, his customer base is national, and he is not at risk from weather or other physical dangers. He decided to open a second e-commerce store and found himself at our Back in Business event for some guidance. At the event he decided to go with Yahoo! and Solid Cactus. He’s excited to announce the launch of his new store.

Collectively, the small business community across the region is doing what it can to help spark economic recovery. We wish the entire region much luck and success on the challenging but important road ahead.

Kristen Wareham,
Yahoo! Small Business