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Small Business Issues

Luke Keith

Keith’s Ace Hardware has two locations in the greater Chattanooga area. It is a family owned third-generation hardware franchise. Ace is a small local business that is competing with big box stores like Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart. 


According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Small businesses—firms with 249 or fewer employees—accounted for 99 percent of the 5.6 million firms covered under Unemployment Insurance in the first quarter of 2023. Small Business Week, April 28–May 4, celebrates these businesses' contributions to the economy. Over the last ten years, those small businesses have employed an average of 46 percent of the covered workforce. However, over the same period, small businesses contributed 55 percent of the net total number of jobs created”(“Small Businesses Contributed”). Small businesses employ around half of the workers in the United States.


According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, “99.9% of businesses are small. There are 34,752,434 small businesses in the United States… [and they] are 43.5% of GDP. Small businesses pay 39% of all private sector payroll” (“Frequently Asked Questions”). This is why it’s important that small businesses succeed.


At Keith’s Ace Hardware, Molly Bryant’s job title is general manager, which means she schedules employees, payroll, inventory control, human resources, orders all Ace stock for the Dalton store, orders STIHL products for both stores, orders feed for both stores, and generally makes sure everything runs smoothly. She treats employees how she would want to be treated. She really wants the young employees to have a school-work-life balance. She wants her young employees to have a work break while they are on school break unless they want to work more hours. She will not schedule them more hours because they are not at school without them asking for more hours. “I would rather see our 17 and 18 year olds at those Friday night football games than at the hardware store,” Bryant says. She wants her young employees to live life as a kid and not constantly be working. 


Molly Bryant of Keith's Ace Hardware (front row, blue jeans) says leaning in to the struggles of being a small business in America is worth the experience she is able to offer her customer base.
Molly Bryant of Keith's Ace Hardware (front row, blue jeans) says leaning in to the struggles of being a small business in America is worth the experience she is able to offer her customer base.

Bryant has worked for Keith’s Ace for 11 years. She started as a part time cashier while she was attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) for accounting. “She came to the hardware store as a 19 year old girl looking for a job while she was in college,” says Adam Keith, who owns Keith’s Ace. She hated her accounting internship and quit. She continued to work for Ace and worked her way up in management and eventually became the general manager for all stores. She is a devoted mom, boss, wife, and friend. 


Bryant says she has seen the rise in small business issues throughout her career in this industry. Some examples of small business issues are employee retention, financial struggles, and competition with big businesses. However, she finds working to overcome these issues allow her to meet real needs in the community. “When you don’t have any money, you’re not going to hire a plumber, you’re going to come to a local hardware store, hopefully get some great help on the sales floor and learn how to fix it yourself,” Bryant says. She also knows that there are a good amount of people who do not know how to fix a leak or replace something. This is why customers will come to Ace because they know they will get the help they need. Both customers and employees know Bryant specifically for her cheerful willingness to help. “All the customers love her because she is bubbly and positive around them,” says Keith. She attracts customers because of her personality and work ethic. They will get walked through their problem by an employee. Ultimately, Bryant is pushing back against the problems that come with operating a small business by being a respectful and loved boss, having excellent customer service, and giving employees a family friendly environment to work in.


She also loves her job because it gives her certain things that she could not get if she was working for someone else like control of her own schedule and never missing anything with her kids. She never has to do work at home. “It allows me to be flexible. I don’t have to take my work home with me. It just gives me a very healthy work-life balance,” Bryant says. She fell in love with the hardware business very quickly.


Bryant’s relationships with people in her community are so strong that customers and employees will reach out to her for important events coming up in their life. “I have lots of past employees send me birth announcements or graduation announcements,” she says. They want Bryant to know that they are still thinking about her and how she has changed them as a person. “They will tell me I am probably the most caring boss they have had to date, so really just loving them as humans and not employees all the time knowing that when they walk in my doors, I have no idea what they had just gone through before they got there,” Bryant says. She wants them to know that she is more than just their boss. She wants to treat them like family.


Bryant loves employee relationships. She loves working with people. She also really admires the customer service her Ace’s were known for and she loves to work with customers. “They would rather come here and have Bill Hicks, who is 82 years old walk them through a plumbing project with great knowledge, rather than go elsewhere and not get the customer service we pride ourselves on,” Bryant says. She sees people come back to Ace just for the way they have been treated in the past and the customer service they have experienced. 


“They would rather come here and have Bill Hicks, who is 82 years old walk them through a plumbing project with great knowledge, rather than go elsewhere and not get the customer service we pride ourselves on.”

Bryant has experienced problems with competing salaries. Big box stores can pay more per hour, but they don’t offer a family oriented environment. That is what Bryant prides herself on. “Employee retention can create a little bit of a problem because the salary market is so competitive right now, so you can be here and then all the sudden someone offers you a job for $3 more you’re going to jump ship,” Bryant says. 


Bryant loves working in the small business industry because she feels that it is very important to our society. She feels like everyone always needs something from a small business.




Works Cited

Bryant, Molly. Personal interview. 12 November 2024.


“Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business, 2024 – Office of Advocacy.” SBA advocacy, 23 July 2024, https://advocacy.sba.gov/2024/07/23/frequently-asked-questions-about-small-business-2024/. Accessed 20 November 2024.


“Small businesses contributed 55 percent of the total net job creation from 2013 to 2023 : The Economics Daily: U.S.” Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1 May 2024, https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/small-businesses-contributed-55-percent-of-the-total-net-job-creation-from-2013-to-2023.htm. Accessed 20 November 2024.



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