MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake business community got a preview of the future of small business last week when the Chamber of Commerce unveiled its Chamber Catalyst Center downtown. 

“The first three years of a business are the most critical,” said Chamber Director Debbie Doran-Martinez. “Typically it’s five before you’re really solid.” 

That’s the hurdle that the Catalyst Center is designed to get past, Doran-Martinez explained, by nurturing startup businesses through those first few years. The four startups that occupy shop space in the building at 301 W. Broadway Ave. are all on leases ranging from three to five years, after which they’ll presumably be strong enough to leave the nest and set up in their own buildings. This leaves them better positioned for success, Doran-Martinez said. 

“Businesses that launch in an incubator have an 87% success rate, whereas those that just launch on their own, go find their space and do their thing, have a 44% success rate,” she said. 

The Chamber hosted its monthly Business After Hours get-together at the Catalyst Center on May 6, to introduce those businesses to the community and showcase the incubation process. The event included tacos by A-Crew Catering and beverages from the chamber. 

“Debbie came to me and said, ‘We really need Moses Lake to be a game-changer,’” said state Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, who championed the project in the legislature. “(She said) ‘We think we can do with more businesses in town, get more people shopping in town rather than leaving to go to Spokane or Tri-Cities or Wenatchee.’ I agreed, and we were able to secure some funds for this building.” 

One of the startups in the Catalyst Center, The Shack, had been especially eager and opened in early April. The Shack owner Rick Rodriguez said in the month he’s been open he’s been doing a brisk business. 

“It has been steady,” Rodriguez said. “We have some days that are a little slower, but for the most par,t I’d say we’re doing all right. We have to keep filling up on phone cases because we sell out. We’ve got a bunch of holes (in the wall display,) but we’re getting them filled as quick as we can. It’s going out faster than it’s coming in.” 

The Shack is an authorized Radio Shack reseller, and when Rodriguez first opened, he had some difficulty getting the company’s branded products in. That seems to be changing, he said.  

“We’re little by little building that inventory up like I want,” Rodriguez said. 

Next door, Rodriguez’s sister Rita Morfin has opened Cyclepath Spin Studio, where she plans to offer spin classes, a fitness program using exercise bikes. 

“We've got 14 bikes plus an instructor bike,” Morfin said. “We just got our mirrors installed yesterday, and we're hoping to offer three to four classes a day.” 

Morfin said she had four instructors lined up and is training to be one herself. She decided to go into business as she and Pete were helping Rodriguez get set up. 

“My husband and I kept seeing this space, and we kept coming in here, and Debbie kept saying, ‘It’s open, it’s open,’” Morfin said. “I don’t even know what (shop space) cost anywhere else. We didn’t get that far. We had this opportunity and we jumped on it.” 

Local artists Leanne Hickman and Judy Kalin opened their Up Town Art Gallery after many years of taking part in local art shows and fairs. They had their own work on display, plus works by other artists that they plan to rotate, probably every couple of months, Hickman said. The displays at the opening event included jewelry by Phyllis PuFahl and pottery by Kreatives by Kris. 

“We got a really good deal,” Hickman said. “We're going to stay here for three years; that's what we filled the contract out for, (and) we'll see what happens from there.” 

The fourth startup is Plum, an eclectic décor shop owned by Whidbey Island transplant Janine Coutts. Coutts has been collecting vintage items since she was a teenager, she said, and after more than 35 years as a hair stylist, now she’s got a chance to do what she loves.  

Coutts and her husband Doug moved to Moses Lake when he took a job with the city, she said. 

“It was really hard to start fresh, all brand new again,” she said. “I ride horses, I barrel race, and I’d just been riding and puttering and decided, when the chamber offered this opportunity, to take advantage of it.” 

The chamber has moved its own office into the building as well, Doran-Martinez said, and Wenatchee-based Copiers Northwest will be stationed there permanently for a local branch office. Its shop will also serve as a publicly available space where business operators without a dedicated office can have access to the internet and copiers and meet with clients as needed. 

“The suite that they're in is considered a co-working space,” Doran-Martinez said. “People can come in just for a day and pay a fee, or they can get a punch card for ten visits. They can just drop in and use it as their office, have access to the copier, Wi-Fi, a professional space to meet clients; they can use it as a mailing address, the whole nine yards.” 

Besides getting a really good deal on office space, tenants at the Catalyst Center will get mentoring from small business experts and learn some of the things beginning entrepreneurs sometimes learn the hard way. The Chamber has launched a series of workshops for small business owners to teach the ins and outs of things like tax liability, insurance, human resources and more. Those workshops aren’t limited to Catalyst Center business owners, Doran-Martinez said. 

Helping small businesses get off to a good start is good not only for them but for the community at large, Doran-Martinez said. 

“When we shop local, it turns in our community 6.8 times,” she said. “When I go and use a local mortgage broker, then she's going to go shop with a local boutique, who then is going to spend locally at restaurants, not to mention they're employing our local people. It just has a ripple effect on our local economy.” 

For more information on the Chamber’s entrepreneurial workshop series, visit www.moseslake.com. 

Moses Lake Chamber Catalyst Center 

301 W. Broadway, Moses Lake
Suite A: Up Town Art Gallery 

Suite B: Copiers Northwest/Public office space 

Suite C: Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce 

Suite D: The Shack 

Suite E: Cyclepath Spin Studio 

Suite F: Plume 

    Moses Lake artist Leanne Hickman talks with visitors at the Chamber of Commerce’s Catalyst Center May 6. Hickman and another artist, Judy Kalin, opened Up Town Art Gallery in the center to showcase their art and that of other artists in the community.
  

    Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce members and others from the community look over the chamber’s new Catalyst Center May 6. This space, used by Copiers Northwest as a branch office, will also be available as occasional-use office space to anyone who needs it.