c/detroit-business-owners

Can we talk about the new parking meter app crashing during the lunch rush

It completely failed on me last Thursday when a customer was trying to pay. I had to run out and feed the meter with quarters I dug out of my car console. Has anyone found a reliable workaround for when the app goes down?

At a city hall meeting last month, I heard a council member say 'we need more businesses that stay.'

It made me rethink my whole plan to flip my storefront location every few years. Now I'm debating if building a long-term spot in one neighborhood is smarter than chasing the next hot area. What's your take on planting roots versus staying mobile?

Had to pick between a 3am delivery slot or paying a $150 rush fee for my new sign

My old sign for the Corktown shop broke last week, and the new one was stuck at the freight yard. The company said I could either wait three days for a normal delivery or get it at 3am for free, so I chose the early slot and had to meet the truck in my pajamas with a flashlight. Has anyone else had a delivery company give you a weird choice like that?

Why does nobody talk about the difference between hiring locally versus using a national temp agency?

Last quarter, we needed 15 extra hands for a big project at our Corktown warehouse. We went with a big national temp firm first, and half the people didn't show up on day two. Then we switched to a local staffing company that only works in Detroit. They sent us people who actually knew the city and stuck around. The local crew finished the job two days early. Has anyone else found that local hires just work out better here?

I was wrong about hiring a full time social media person for my Corktown shop

For months I thought I needed someone in house to handle our Instagram and Facebook, so I hired a local grad for $45,000 a year. After three months, our posts felt forced and our sales didn't move. I switched to a small Detroit agency that charges $1,500 a month, and they got us featured in a local news blog within six weeks. Has anyone else made a switch from an employee to a contract service for marketing and seen better results?

A customer said my store hours were confusing, so I fixed them

Had a regular tell me last Tuesday they drove over from Royal Oak but my sign said closed. My hours were different on Google, my door, and my Instagram. Felt bad. I made one simple schedule and put it everywhere. Now it's the same on all three spots. Took maybe an hour to fix. Anyone else have this problem with their business info being wrong online?

Got some wild advice from a guy at the Eastern Market coffee shop

I was grabbing a coffee before a meeting and this older guy, Frank, saw my business cards. He runs a print shop over on Gratiot. He leaned over and said, 'Kid, you're paying too much for your web hosting. I bet it's over $50 a month.' He was right, it was $55. He told me about a local Detroit host he's used for 12 years that's half the price and keeps the servers here. Anyone else made a switch to a local tech vendor and had it work out?

Heard a story about a Corktown hardware store that's been there since 1972

I was getting coffee at a place on Michigan Avenue and overheard two older guys talking. One said his father opened the store with a $5,000 loan and kept the same sign out front for fifty years. It made me think about how many of us now feel pressure to rebrand every few years just to stay visible. Do you find that kind of long-term consistency is still valued by customers here?

Can we talk about the new food trucks on Woodward Avenue

Last week I saw three new trucks set up near Grand Circus Park, which is a big change from just a few years ago when that spot was mostly empty. I remember three years ago you could only find a couple of trucks downtown on game days. Do you think this is a good sign for small food businesses in the city?

I just lost $500 on a bad social media ad campaign

I run a small coffee shop in Midtown and decided to try a new marketing push last month. I hired a guy who promised to get me tons of local followers and customers through Instagram ads. He charged me $500 upfront and said he'd handle everything. Well, he ran the ads for a week and I got maybe three new people in the door. The ads were just generic stock photos of coffee, not even pictures of my actual shop or my drinks. I checked the analytics and most of the clicks came from outside Michigan, which is useless for my business. I feel like I just threw that money away because I didn't ask enough questions up front. Has anyone found a good, affordable person in Detroit who actually knows how to target local customers?

Spent $1200 on a downtown Detroit 'business mentor' who just talked about his old glory days

Hired a guy last year who promised to help grow my Corktown shop. For three months, all he did was tell stories about his own closed business from the 90s. I got zero real plans or contacts. Has anyone found a good advisor who actually gives current, useful advice?

Saw something at the Eastern Market that made me rethink our store hours

I was picking up produce for the kitchen at 7 AM last Saturday and noticed the flower vendor, Belle's Blooms, already had a line of 10 people. She told me she opens at 6:30 AM for the 'early bird contractors and nurses' heading to work. Have any of you tried shifting your opening time earlier to catch a different crowd?

My shop's foot traffic doubled after I finally fixed the sidewalk

For like two years, the concrete in front of my place on Grand River was cracked and uneven, and I'd get maybe 10 people a day coming in. Last month, I bit the bullet and paid $2,800 to get it all leveled and repoured. In the three weeks since, my daily walk-ins are up to 20-25, no joke. I think people just didn't want to trip, or it made the whole storefront look neglected. It's wild how something so basic can scare off that much business. Has anyone else seen a big return from fixing up the outside of their building?

Had a power surge take out our point of sale system during a Saturday lunch rush at the Corktown spot.

Has anyone here switched their business to Cronus Internet?

Hey fellow business owners, I'm fed up with our current ISP dropping out during the lunch rush and messing up our POS system. I saw some flyers for Cronus Internet around downtown recently. Has anyone tried them for their restaurant or retail shop? Are they actually reliable for commercial use?