​By Tara Bitzan, Executive Director, Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce

There is a new campaign under way to educate local residents and businesses about the importance of doing business locally. While this campaign WILL tell you to support local businesses, it WILL NOT tell you to stop shopping online. That’s because we know that isn’t a realistic request.

No one can argue that online shopping has changed the business world tremendously, and in many instances, has caused the demise of some brick and mortar stores. While that is concerning, studies and trends prove that if something is fast, easy, and convenient consumers will use it anyway. So we won’t tell you not to.

What this new campaign WILL tell you is that there are simple things you can do to make a difference in your community.

Pride of the Lakes started with a meeting of some members of the Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Alexandria Downtown Merchants Association who were concerned about the closing of some major retailers in the Alexandria community.

After numerous conversations and hours spent researching what other communities were doing to deal with this issue, we realized that successful communities have community pride at their core. When people are proud of the community in which they live, work and play, they want it to thrive, and they are willing to do their part to support it.

So instead of creating a Shop Local campaign, we created more of a community branding campaign meant to boost the pride we have for our area, and to simply educate people on things they can do to make our community even greater.

We then called in some of the top marketing minds from businesses and organizations throughout Douglas County for a brainstorming session, and from that stemmed the campaign name, “Pride of the Lakes.” We turned that over to students in the marketing class at Alexandria Area High School, who took on the project and created a campaign that included a website, window clings, social media marketing, and newspaper, radio marketing and movie theater marketing. That campaign launched in mid-May.

A couple other key points:

• This is not a “Shop Local” initiative, but rather a “Do Business Local” initiative. Often these campaigns focus on retail shopping. Every business is important to our community, and we want people to realize the importance of supporting service businesses as well, such as banks, insurance agents, auto repair shops, health and wellness businesses, cosmetologists and everything in between. If you are driving hours away to another community for any of those needs, or if you are doing them online with a business out of our community, please consider making a change, and do your business locally!
• This is not an “Alexandria” initiative, but rather a “Douglas County” initiative. Alexandria is the county seat, and is the most populous community in the county. But Alexandria simply wouldn’t be what it is without the residents and businesses throughout all of Douglas County. It’s important that the entire county thrives. So whether you have a business in Miltona, Kensington, Millerville, Forada, or anywhere else within the county, we want to see local residents and businesses supporting you, and we want you to thrive.

​We need EVERYONE to commit to supporting Douglas County, MN – residents young and old, owners of businesses large or small, employees, students, nonprofits, service organizations, and everyone who lives, works, and plays here. We need YOU to make sure our community continues to thrive. Visit www.prideofthelakes.com and pledge to do your part today!

Crystal Christianson is the owner of Studio C Salon located at 312 N Nokomis St. in Alexandria. Studio C Salon offers haircuts and styling along with a variety of coloring services, texture & specialty treatments. Studio C Salon believes in education to keep up on all the latest trends by attending various webinars and classes around the United States and even other countries.

When you’ve spent your entire life in a community, you think you’d know all there is to know about that community. But that is seldom the case.

A person tends to develop a more focused vision dependent on where they are at with our lives. If you have young children, you may be in the know about all the valuable resources the community has to offer for young families. If you work in the health care industry or education field, you may be well versed on the community’s strengths in those fields, or perhaps you have a job that requires you to travel extensively throughout the area, so you are familiar with the local road systems.

But seldom are we in the know about everything that not only makes a community function, but also grow and prosper.

One of the things that has most impressed me during my time at the Chamber of Commerce is the number of high quality, skilled, knowledgeable, passionate professionals we have in our community.

What’s even more impressive is that most of these professionals are happy to share their time, talents and expertise beyond the doors of their businesses to make this a stronger community overall.

That’s not easy to do. In today’s fast-paced world, everyone is busy. It often feels like a struggle to get everything on your work and personal “to-do” list done, let alone find time to volunteer or give in other areas.

But people do it all the time, and research shows that those people actually are better off because of it. And so are the communities in which they live.

If you’ve thought about investing in your leadership abilities and in your community, please consider enrolling in the Leadership Alexandria program.

Sponsored by the Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with West Central Initiative, the program has been developing local leaders for more than 20 years.

It’s for everyone – people new to the area and those who have lived here their entire lives; people just starting out in their careers to those who’ve made a recent career switch to those who’ve already worked their way up to the management level in their companies.
Each year’s class is a unique blend of ages, backgrounds, knowledge and skill sets, styles and personalities. And we have found that the participants learn as much from each other as they do from the program sessions.

The program, which runs one day a month from September through May, does require an investment of time and money. But there is a strong return on your investment for the participant, for the employer and for our community.

You will learn more about yourself and your leadership style. You will learn how to effectively lead others. You will also increase your professional network and enhance your understanding of the area, including its history, government entities, educational system, and business community.
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We are currently accepting applications for this year’s Leadership Alexandria class. Details can be found here: https://www.alexandriamn.org/leadershipalex.html.

Kyle Anderson & Deb Kerr are the owners of The Potomac Bead Company in Alexandria, MN. The Potomac Bead Company is headquartered in Hagerstown, MD and does a lot of business online. The Alexandria, MN location was the last brick & mortar retail store to open. Kyle & Deb do more than just bead work at The Potomac Bead Company that include yarn work and classes through Alexandria Public Schools Community Education such as wine making, soap making, quilting and more!