Surprise studio avoids dance fever as businesses begin reopening
A Time To Dance in situation like many of city's small businesses
With little to no business activity for almost two months, so-called non-essential Surprise businesses that have been mostly shut down by COVID-19 haven’t been finding many silver linings.
But at least one of them was having a great year until the coronavirus brought everything to a virtual standstill in Surprise.
“We were having one of our best years ever,” said Kim Nottke, the owner of A Time To Dance, a studio at 15409 W. Greenway Road. “We just had zero issues financially.”
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With little to no business activity for almost two months, so-called non-essential Surprise businesses that have been mostly shut down by COVID-19 haven’t been finding many silver linings.
But at least one of them was having a great year until the coronavirus brought everything to a virtual standstill in Surprise.
“We were having one of our best years ever,” said Kim Nottke, the owner of A Time To Dance, a studio at 15409 W. Greenway Road. “We just had zero issues financially.”
Normally, A Time to Dance serves about 235 students, which isn’t exactly small. When it was open, classes were constantly in session Monday through Saturday each week.
But since mid-March, Ms. Nottke’s world, like many Surprise small businesses, has been turned upside down as she battles to pay her bills and retain her students, many of whom now have families struggling financially.
All of her classes have moved online with about three-quarters of her regular tuition-paying families not being able to do so during the shutdown.
“I did not want the kids to suffer,” Ms. Nottke said, adding she was offering reduced payment for parents who lost their jobs but still wanted to keep their children in the program.
For April, Ms. Nottke said about a quarter of the families paid their normal tuition. About half of the students were from families where somebody lost a job but they still wanted to continue with the program. About another 25% of students just quit all together.
It’s the kind of struggle all non-essential Surprise businesses are facing as they resume this week and wait for the stay-at-home orders to end May 15.
Ms. Nottke has to pay rent, payroll for eight teachers and one receptionist and costs costs for utilities and incidental things like music licensing.
Normally, in good years when extra money does come in, it usually gets immediately reinvested in things like advertising or replacing rugs, lights and chairs.
But when things are bad like now, it’s a fight for survival.
“We survived the Great Recession, but it took two years to get ourselves back after filing bankruptcy,” Ms. Nottke said.
When the closures first struck, Ms. Nottke thought it was going to be quick. She paid her teachers with the March tuition that was collected and had funds to pay all of her normal bills, including rent and utilities.
“With the original closure in March, it seemed like a two-week closure, and we thought we can handle that,” Ms. Nottke said.
It became quickly apparent, however, that the dance teachers, who took pay cuts to stay, needed to brainstorm ideas to keep teaching students online.
“We can’t just close for two weeks,” Ms. Nottke said she thought at the time.
The studio has been hosting Live Zoom classes during regular class time for those who have stayed on, and Ms. Nottke still holds out hope a planned recital for June is still going to happen. In fact, she has more than 800 costumes in boxes sitting in her dining room still waiting.
Catch a break
As reopening day approaches, the studio is hoping to catch a break from its landlord at the shopping center at Greenway and Reems Avenue.
So far, it doesn’t look like it’s happening. After Ms. Nottke paid March’s rent in full, she was only able to come up with half of April’s — and she had to take money out of her personal savings just to make that happen.
The owner took the half-rent for April, but ended up tacking it onto May’s bill.
“It’s very scary for our business,” Ms. Nottke said. “We are month-to-month. We live off my husband’s income.”
The studio applied for loans from the Payroll Protection Program, the massive federal government program that sent money to businesses across the country in two waves. But because her teachers are subcontractors, banks told her she was not eligible for government help, despite applying the first day she could.
“I can prove I use it for payroll,” Ms. Nottke said. “I paid the landlord and I’m paying teachers with personal savings in hopes of getting the PPP loan. They don’t understand this is a 24 hour a day, seven day a week emotional job.”
City services
While A Time to Dance’s problems may be unique to that business, most Surprise businesses are looking for outside help to get restarted.
The city of Surprise is attempting to help smooth things over for businesses that are re-opening over the next few weeks.
“We shifted gears and we really turned into a business retention and a workforce recovery team,” said Jeanine Jerkovic, Surprise’s economic development director.
The city is offering an arsenal of programs to help businesses get through the tough times.
A free online small business tool that could help some Surprise businesses is called Startup Space, a virtual hub network of resources for entrepreneurs and small businesses. It’s listed under aztechcelerator.com/programs.
The city also plans to soon launch SizeUp on its website. That’s designed to help small business access market information that’s specific to their business location for customers, competition, supply chain and overhead.
A partnership with the Surprise Regional Chamber of Commerce will offer a virtual ribbon cutting package to engage the community and guests through social media. Ms. Jerkovic said that should elevate the virtual presence reopening and new businesses.
The city also has services to help businesses with creating a website if they need it through the AZ TechCelerator.
The purple “Open for Business” #ShopSurprise banner campaign began last month on the heels of “See Red, Get Fed” banners that were distributed to about 150 Surprise restaurants to help drive traffic to them.
The city distributed about 250 banners to Surprise’s more than 800 businesses with five or more employees.
“Businesses love the banners,” Ms. Jerkovic said.
The Economic Development department also publishes a regularly updated restaurant list that shows who is open for take-out, delivery or both.
Restaurants that previously didn’t offer delivery are now using options such as Postmates, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Doordash and NStore, a free solution for restaurants that adds 5% on the customer’s order.
The city also in April launched an online promotional resource to let any non-restaurant business have its establishment promoted on the Surprise Economic Development website and social media sites.
More metrics needed
One thing the city is having difficulty tracking, however, is who is getting help from the Small Business Administration.
“It’s a struggle to get our arms around who in Surprise, who in the West Valley, who in Arizona is really getting those SBA services,” Ms. Jerkovic said.
She said the city hasn’t been able to get any information at a city or zip code level.
“Identifying SBA application and funding levels in the community would be of interest for us to know as we would like for each and every eligible Surprise business to apply and get the resources they need,” Ms. Jerkovic said.
During a business town hall with Mayor Skip Hall, U.S. Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) and an aide to Gov. Doug Ducey in late April, Ms. Jerkovic even brought up a movie reference to explain the city’s role to help coach businesses through the tough times.
“We get to be Rocky’s coach when Rocky is in the corner and we can say ‘Give ’em what you got, businesses,” Ms. Jerkovic said.
Some Surprise businesses are being singled out for some of their work during the challenging times.
IRIS USA, 13423 W. Cactus Road, manufactured masks at its Wisconsin plant and donated them to local health care workers.
Pinkbella Cupcakes, 13681 N. Litchfield Road, donated masks to local firefighters and has been making food deliveries dressed in costumes, such as Disney characters.
Ms. Jerkovic also singled out Trimaco, 13600 W. Sweetwater Ave.; Firehouse Subs, 13820 W. Bell Road; and Saigon Kitchen, 14071 W. Bell Road, for their work donating supplies and meals to the community.
“Up until six weeks ago, we were record-breaking as far as permits and construction,” Ms. Jerkovic said. “With some adjustment, I think we’ll find a way forward.”
Surprise is still expecting a good year in business openings, despite the virus fears.
Beside the long-awaited opening of Costco, other big projects still set to open include Tractor Supply, Handel’s Ice Cream, the Abrazo microhospital, a new Starbucks in the Winco shopping center and a second Legacy Traditional School campus in the city.
Plus, there are still projects developing in the City Center, Surprise Railplex area and Prasada.
“The economy will have to adapt, and I think we will,” Ms. Jerkovic said.
Meet Jason Jason Stone joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2019, after a distinguished three decade media career that included stops at the Arizona Republic, iHeart Media/Clear Channel and Beckett Sports Card magazine. He remembers when airports sold newspapers.
Community: He is a big supporter of the Valley's original sports team: The Phoenix Suns.
Education: Northern Arizona University with a BS in broadcast journalism and a minor in sports coaching.
Random Fact: The capital of Nebraska is Lincoln.
Hobbies: Surfing, backgammon and men who aren't afraid to cry.
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