Corpus Christi Business News celebrates five years of publication this month. Dedicated to promoting locally owned and operated businesses, the monthly Business News highlights the people who keep the city’s economic engines running.
“Supporting the mom-and-pop stores — the small-business owners — in Corpus Christi supports the city’s economic foundation,” said Dan Alvey, CEO of Texas Publishing Co. Texas Publishing owns the Corpus Christi Business News, 101 Fun Things to do in Corpus Christi magazine, Corpus Christi Living direct mailer and the Corpus Christi Area-Wide Telephone and Internet Directory, a locally owned publication that has served the community for 19 years. It also produces 101CorpusChristi.com, a major marketing website that covers the broad spectrum of businesses and business news in the Coastal Bend.
“I’m a local business owner, and I support local business owners,” Alvey continued. “Locally owned businesses put more of their profits back into the community, which keeps a city economically strong and helps provide opportunity to its citizens. It’s a win-win.”
Indeed, local retailers return more of their profits to the community than chain stores, according to a study by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit organization that supports community development. While national chain retailers return 14 percent of their revenue to the community, local retailers return 52 percent.
The numbers are even better when it comes to locally owned restaurants, which recirculate an average of 79 percent of their local revenue compared to 30 percent for chains. The reason, according to the study, is independent businesses spend more on local labor, local goods and services from local providers.
“This means a much larger share of the money you spend at a locally owned store stays in your local economy, supporting a variety of other businesses and jobs,” reads a  report by the group.
With that in mind, Corpus Christi Business News covers more than local economic news. It also profiles small businesses, telling readers the stories of how these entrepreneurs turned their dreams of being their own bosses into reality. While three or four of these are published each month in the newspaper, the entire collection can be found online at 101CorpusChristi.com/spotlight.
The stories of inspiration and enterprise are promoted through social media and have even resulted in sales as Facebook and Twitter posts extend their spider-web reach across the internet.
Gilbert Escobar of Manufactured Housing Consultants is particularly pleased with the social media feedback he has received from his exposure in the local business newspaper.
“We get a big response from social media,” he said. “The same day our story was posted, we got a call from California and made a big sale. I asked the caller where he found out about us, and he said he saw it in the Business News through Facebook.”
Corpus Christi Business News also sends out a weekly email newsblast, which anyone interested in receiving can sign up to receive for free. Email addresses are not shared with any other entity. Sign up online at 101CorpusChristi.com/newsblast.
The website is also a portal to all the businesses that advertise in the Corpus Christi Area-Wide Telephone and Internet Directory — or The Blue Book. Find the service you need, whether legal, medical, home improvement, lawn and garden, etc., and click on that particular guide in the navigation bar. You’ll find the services you need along with editorial content that can help you improve your home, garden or health.
An interactive events calendar at 101CorpusChristi.com/EVENTS keeps you up to date on what’s happening throughout the community, whether business-related or not. The Volunteer Guide highlights nonprofits and how you can help make your community a better place to live.
The site is constantly growing and improving, with even more changes to come in the near future, Alvey said, all of which are geared toward helping support the small-business owners who make Corpus Christi a great place to live.
“Supporting local businesses supports the local economy,” he said. “I have built my own business on that philosophy. The goal of Corpus Christi Business News is to highlight the work and dedication behind those company logos and signs you see while driving through town. It’s to let our readers know who their neighbors are, who they are doing business with and what’s out there that they may not be aware of.”
Corpus Christi Business News is located at 4455 South Padre Island Drive, #4, in the Commerce Business Park. Call (361) 991-1306 for more information.