James and Sonya Cantrell, owners of Cantrell’s Fine Jewelry in Coffeyville and Independence, Kansas were featured as a model of best business marketing practices at Main Street America’s Main Street Now 2021 conference. They were part of a presentation by Destination Business expert Jon Schallert, “The Post-Covid Comeback: The New Requirements to Build a Destination Downtown.”
James and Sonya Cantrell, owners of Cantrell’s Fine Jewelry.The April 12-14 virtual conference had thousands of viewers from around the world, including small business owners, community leaders, and economic development and revitalization professionals. Sessions focused on Recovery and Resilience, Equity and Inclusion, and Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
James and Sonya were among a small group of 12 business owners Schallert featured in his presentation whose approach was highlighted for practical, affordable, immediately implementable steps that can be employed by any business. The Cantrells are the only business owners in the Midwest that has been featured twice nationally by Jon Schallert.
“My goal was to highlight the most innovative business owners from North America who have experienced the pandemic and successfully emerged from it. I wanted to show owners how best to position themselves so they can succeed in the new normal of 2021 where every business can thrive,” Schallert said. “Cantrell’s Fine Jewelry is already ahead of the game with what they’ve done this last year under extremely difficult conditions.”
“The pandemic has been a challenge to every business, but we changed early in 2020 to meet the needs of our customers and to help them get through this, also,” James said. “It’s great that our business was featured in this worldwide conference because other business owners can benefit from what we learned and it’s exciting to know that our experience might help a fellow business owner who is struggling right now.”
The business owners that Schallert featured learned his 14-step Destination Business Strategy at his Destination BootCamp course. Schallert’s process was learned after interviewing over 10,000 independent business owners over the course of three decades.
“We learned to have a unique positioning statement from Jon four years ago,” Sonya said. “Because we had implemented this in our business it has made a huge difference to keep us successful during the difficult past year.”
“Many things about running a small business have been profoundly changed by COVID-19, but for independent businesses, being the first choice with a consumer remains the same,” Schallert said. “My goal is to make sure owners in every community have the best tools possible to flourish in 2021 as we come out of this pandemic.”
James and Sonya Cantrell began Cantrell’s Fine Jewelry over 13 years ago in Coffeyville, Kansas. In 2009, they opened a second location in Independence, Kansas. Prior to opening their own business James had worked for other jewelry stores and has over 45 years of experience in jewelry repair and design.
