The World Cup games Kansas City will host next year are drawing out small-business owners who want to be in on the action.
But many in the past have complained that the city’s permitting process for small businesses has been confusing and slow. The city hopes to change that in time for the World Cup and for the future of small businesses in the area, even after the games are gone.
At a Small Business Day with the City event, Janá Wagner said the city is working to improve its communication between departments and “knock down barriers” in the regulatory process for small-business owners.
“We're trying to help them through this event, be able to talk to any and every department that has any hand in getting small businesses permitted,” Wagner said. “Because we want people to vend and to really capitalize off of this opportunity to gain some revenue during the World Cup, but we also want them to be compliant.”
Wagner is the division manager for KCBizCare, a business advocacy and information center with the city. The group received a grant from the National League of Cities for events like Small Business Day, which she said the city plans to host annually.
The grant also pays for events like lunch and learns that BizCare has held with business owners to hear their concerns about what it takes to run a business in the city.
“Some of the permitting and licensing processes are really long, and they can be confusing,” Wagner said. “We are really proud to have this event to really be able to explain all those processes to our small-business owners and take the time to show them that the city, BizCare and all the other departments have their back.”
Addel Othman was one of the first business owners to come to the event. He and his brother own Mocha Point, a Yemeni coffee shop that they started in the St. Louis area, and are bringing a second location to Overland Park.
The brothers also operate a coffee cart, which they’re hoping to bring to the World Cup next year. Othman came early to the small-business event to learn more about what forms and permits he would need to secure before bringing his business to Kansas City.
“We're all huge soccer fans,” Othman said. “This is an excuse for us to go, quote-unquote, work but also be at the World Cup. It's also just a good way to reach many eyes, because everybody from all around the world is going to be there. So it's also a good marketing campaign.”
Othman said the process was confusing, but he learned a lot at the event and feels ready to operate in the city during the World Cup. He said he’s most excited about “meeting people from all different cultures, religions and races” and hopes to serve as many different customers from other countries as possible during the games.
The small-business event is not the only thing the city is doing to prepare business owners for the games. Kansas City also will let bars and restaurants serve alcohol for 23 hours a day for a period of time, ended fees for outdoor dining permits, awarded $300,000 in grants to more than 30 restaurants to create outdoor dining spaces and lowered fees for short-term rentals that operate during the World Cup.
KC2026, the group organizing the games in Kansas City, has also started a “game plan” website for entrepreneurs who want to get their business ready for next summer.
The city also wants to activate empty storefronts in time for the games by giving grants to people who open pop-up shops or lease them to open a brick-and-mortar business. The funds will be used to support build-out, inventory and operation costs for the retail activity.
Matt Jones hopes to take advantage of one of those grants. He started Crease Beast, a company that sells memory foam inserts to get rid of creases in shoes and prevent them in new ones. Jones wants to open a brick-and-mortar storefront to sell more inserts to sneakerheads who come for the World Cup.
Jones said having every department in a central location helped him get his questions answered all at once. He wants to open his storefront in the Power and Light District or Crown Center to get the best chance of foot traffic to his store. There are still more deadlines to meet before then, but he said he’s confident he’ll have everything in place by next summer.
“With us being the smallest World Cup host city, it's a real good chance to make an impression on the world stage, where we're eligible for more events like this and more people are attracted to the city and bring their businesses here,” Jones said.
Wagner, the division lead for BizCare, said that’s exactly what they’re looking to do. She said the city plans to make Small Business Day an event annual to help make it easier for the business community, even after the games are gone.
“We've done all this great work cross-departmentally to make sure that we're all speaking to each other, that lines of communication are open,” Wagner said. “Even after the World Cup, we definitely want to keep those relationships strong, and really keep our departments de-siloed.”
