Blog 5: Making Progress with A Full Plate
By Andy Whitby, The Weldon Advocate
This post will have more of a personal vibe to it but it’s all for the good of Weldon.
The development of this marketing campaign of “Find Great Treasures” has, at times, put me into a bit of a squeeze to make progress on all fronts.
Back in the summer, I decided that I would devote the fall months to giving some of my buildings a facade improvement. Mostly a fresh coat of paint, but it’s never that easy. There’s always some rotten wood or re-glazing of windows and of course, scraping paint and washing and… and…. and.
And let me preface this with the fact that I work a 3rd shift job, getting up at 10:30 pm and getting back home around 5 am. I get my best sleep in the mornings and usually get up for day work around 10 am. So this only gives me a few hours in the afternoons to work on buildings or other activities, since I try to wrap up the day in time for dinner, a shower and bedtime by 7 pm.
In late August I began work on the storefront of the Mane Attraction Beauty Salon at 306 Washington Avenue and completed it in mid-September.
Then I moved on to a big project of preparing and repainting the corner building of Washington Avenue and 3rd Street. If you’ve seen my Facebook post
( https://www.facebook.com/andywhitby1/ ) in October and November on the progress of this project, you can tell there’s been extensive paint scraping with impressive results on the cast-iron pilasters.
The number of days I had to work on this project was limited by the fact that the business in that building is open and busy on Fridays and Saturdays. It would not have worked out too well with customers going in and out with me having ladders and scaffolding on the front of the building. Then there was rain/remnants of hurricanes and now the colder temps have gotten in the way of fully completing this project. It had been my hope to complete this project before it got too cold to paint. The weather stayed warm thru mid-December, but now that we are into January, I will have sporadic opportunities to paint.
Before and After First Coat of New Colors
When I finish the corner building, it’s my plan to repaint the building on the corner of Washington Avenue and 2nd Street.
As a result of these improvements, I’m seeing other businesses making improvements and some have asked me to work on their facade. I’m hoping that by the Spring of 2021 we will see several facade improvements taking place.
As a result, of all these “irons in the fire”, I know that I have not accomplished everything I had envisioned with the marketing campaign of Find Great Treasures in Downtown Weldon.
It was late September when Kelly Barber with the Small Business Center at Halifax Community College called offering Social Media Marketing training. While I saw the value in it and wanted and needed the training, I was just thinking that it would be great if I could finish the big painting project I was doing on the two-story corner building before I took the training. But the funding had deadlines and for me to take advantage of the training I had to do it before the end of October. So I did that training each Wednesday from 1:00 to 2:00 pm. Some days I was able to get out and go work on the building for an hour or so but most days I continued to flesh out the ideas we had just discussed in the training.
During this time I began putting together the plans for developing the Find Great Treasures marketing campaign. I had planned to begin getting all the businesses on board and gather their input with this theme after the first of the year.
But then we got the opportunity to work with Les Atkins and do a photoshoot with the businesses and some of the sites to see in Downtown Weldon. This would need to be completed before the end of November and due to Les having other commitments, the photoshoot needed to occur on November 7th.
Well, this meant all of the businesses had to be contacted, gotten on board, and informed of the photoshoot. This became the best time to gather information on each business that will be used to create a Business Directory and write-ups on the businesses.
To go along with this theme, was the plan to have each business display a large OPEN sign with a header proclaiming “Find Great Treasures Here”. I have the equipment to make such signs, so some time has been spent getting these signs made and installed before the photoshoot.
In the meantime, the days were getting shorter and colder and there’s still painting that needs to be done on the corner building.
While I know I need to be working on some long-term goals for the growth and betterment of Downtown Weldon, I find myself frustrated with so many things that need to be done today to keep the income coming in and the bills paid in the short term.
While it’s been a bit busy for me, I see the progress being made on all fronts and the support from everyone has been great.
Find previous blog posts at www.weldonnc.com/blog. Next time, read about Transition Opens Opportunity.
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- Riverside Mill: Antique Mall-Arts Gallery- Outlets
- Downtown Weldon Flea Market
- That Pops, Vintage Inspired Thrift Boutique
- Treasure Chest Thrift Store
- Nature’s Manna: Herbs, Kefir and Other Healthy Stuff
- Trends: Urban Clothing
- Stepin’ High Clothing
- This N That Thrift Shop (Davis)
- Holloman’s Auctions, 207 E 2nd St
- Weldon Mills Distillery, Small Batch Bourbon Maker
- 51 Sycamore Restaurant & Rockfish Bar
Andy Whitby has been an advocate for Weldon and a local historian for many years. Whitby has been involved in Downtown Revitalization efforts through tourism and economic development for nearly 30 years. As the owner of several downtown commercial properties, Whitby seeks to provide attractive and affordable rental space for locally owned businesses and entrepreneurs.
If you know of others that would enjoy this type of information on the revitalization of Weldon, please forward their email address to andywhitby789@gmail.com with ADD in the subject.
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