Four small businesses in Northeast TN win $10,000 grants

(WJHL) – Four locally-owned small businesses in the Tri-Cities won a $10,000 grant through the national Backing Small Business Grant Program.

August Muse, Blue’s Brews Co., Pedals on Rails and Pins & Friends are four out of 500 small businesses in the United States to receive the grant.

August Muse

August Muse, located at 518 East Elk Avenue in downtown Elizabethton, sells art pieces from local artists, dance attire, music supplies and much more.

Owner Paula Augustine said they’ll use the money to launch an e-commerce store.

“I’ve noticed that people are saying to me, ‘I order on Amazon and it just comes, right and I don’t get [to] downtown Elizabethton very often.’” Augustine said. “So it would be nice if I had an online presence, and then people could order and pick up in store just like they do at Walmart and support local instead of, we don’t know where.”

Augustine said they’re also working on a delivery system as well.

“We’re going to start this grant with the dance wear and the music supplies, because parents are so busy today. It’s difficult for them to get to the store sometimes to see if we have what they need. Being able to go online and just see would be very nice. And then each of our artists and makers eventually will get their own page and get more presence online instead of doing like an Etsy shop or something like that. They’ll be with my business and have their presence here, as well as online.”

August Muse also offers tea, and The Cookie Crate company also currently uses the space for pick-up orders.

Augustine teaches music and dance lessons, as well. She said it’s so important to keep supporting local small businesses.

“I think it’s $68 out of every hundred stays local in your community, because we hire local, we pay our local taxes. All that money comes back into our community and stays in our community and gets spent in our community.”

Blue’s Brews Co.

Blue’s Brews Co. is a coffee, brews and food spot located at 109 Cherry Street, Suite 40 in Johnson City. They also have an airstream they operate out of on Saturday mornings for the downtown Farmer’s Market. They used to exclusively operate out of the airstream, but have been in their brick & mortar location since October 2022.

They sell coffee beverages, tea, beer, wine, bagels and more.

Sarah Colson, owner of Blue’s Brews Co., said they want to ramp up their community engagement with the grant funding.

“So part of that is aesthetic things,” Colson said. “So getting new upgrades to our outdoor seating and indoor seating. And then another big part of that is going to be going towards our events that we’re already doing. So trivia prizes, live music funding, because that can be expensive. And also upgrading our espresso machine on the Airstream.”

Colson said her and her staff really appreciates the grant funding. She said summers are hard for coffee shops, and it’s really encouraging to be recognized.

She said what makes Blue’s Brews Co. unique is their inclusiveness.

“Coffee can be very exclusive and sort of like snobby and whatever, and I think we do a really good job of not doing that. We try to be as inclusive as possible. And if people want a drink that tastes like a Starbucks drink, we’re going to do our best to get you what you want.”

“If you want a fancier higher end coffee drink, we’re also going to do that. And I think that’s a hard thing to balance, and we’re trying to do that really well. I think every single one, every single person who has so many different tastes that come in our doors, we just want them to leave happy. And so I think that in itself builds community.”

Pedals on Rails

Pedals on Rails is located at 401 East E Street in Elizabethton in the old Coca-Cola building. They are a bike rental and repair shop. They operate near the Tweetsie Trail and are the only bike rental business in the City of Elizabethton.

Todd Rice co-owns the shop with his wife. He said they’ll use the funds several different ways.

“So 50% of the money will go towards marketing for advertising; more literature, more print material, more banners at local gyms, football fields, baseball fields,” Rice said. “The other 30% will go towards rebuilding or refurbishing our rental fleet, and the other 20% will be towards tools that will go into the repair shop.”

Rice said they service any types of bicycles, no matter where you purchased it. You can rent bikes to use on the Tweetsie Trail through their website or go to the shop.

“We have E-Bikes, we have comfort cruiser bikes, we have mountain bikes and just a wide variety of bikes for all types of people.”

Rice said they are blessed to receive this grant out of 500 in the country.

“We are part of the community. We are here to help serve the community. We’re not a big franchise. We’re just a small local mom and pop, I guess you could say, store. That’s trying to help and support the community.”

Pins & Friends

Pins & Friends is located at 700 State Street on the Bristol, Tennessee side. They are a duck pin bowling company with arcade games, food, drinks, and event spaces as well.

Owner Chip Zimmerman said he’ll use the funding for maintenance and marketing.

“Maintain the quality of our kitchen, the cleanliness, the equipment, make sure that we’re serving the same quality food that we have always provided to the customer,” Zimmerman said. “It also help us get the word out that we’re downtown and it’s a great place to be, families come down and see us. So we’re just making sure that visitors to the area know we’re here by using this money for our marketing campaigns, but also to make sure that our point of sale system is up to date.”

Zimmerman said small businesses are like the seasonings of life. They are customizable and unique.

“The pressure is on us for the customer to have a really good experience because we’re the only one here. Some people may be more tolerant of a chain, if they go to one chain and they do have a bad experience. They don’t blame the whole chain. But we don’t have that luxury. You have one Pins and Friends. You have one Pins and Friends experience. So, this grant money helps us maintain that high level of customer experience in downtown.”

He said duck pin bowling is accessible for everyone, no matter their skill level or ability.

“Playing field is pretty level here. So that’s one thing, and that makes us unique. And the fact that we have high quality food for a bowling alley, people might say, ‘it’s just a bowling alley’, but we really pride ourselves on our food and our signature dishes.”

You can find a full list of all of the businesses in the United States who received this grant here.