Daring to Fail

The work of the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation is focused on reducing barriers for entrepreneurs and creating an ideal environment for businesses to start, grow and scale. We are now in our fourth year since opening Mother Road Market, and we are halfway through our second year since opening its sister development, Shops at Mother Road Market. Both projects are expressions of our organization’s DNA.

We support a community of entrepreneurs and visionaries by alleviating some of their risk and providing resources to maximize their profits. Both Mother Road Market and Shops at Mother Road Market have experienced trial and error consistent with innovating projects of this scale, but theirs is a story of success and endurance thanks to a steady vision and tenacious entrepreneurs. 

To be an entrepreneur is to embrace fear and risk. Pursuing one’s dream is as much an act of faith as it is a calculated attempt to create something lasting. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 62.1% of small businesses make it to the three-year mark. Longevity is simply one metric for determining the success or failure of a business, but most entrepreneurs hope that their idea is one that endures. In some cases, and especially in a pandemic, endurance requires innovation.

The Mother Road Market campus has helped more than 250 entrepreneurs develop their food and retail concepts through pop up space. Four have expanded their businesses and 30 unique merchants have established a long-term presence on our campus.

Over the last 3 years and throughout a pandemic, only 5 businesses have closed while 6 have scaled back or changed their business plan. The high survival rate at Mother Road Market proves that by eliminating barriers we can, ultimately, bolster the success rate for small businesses.

A study recently conducted by the Federal Reserve regarding the impact of the pandemic on business demonstrates the dramatic change in landscape for small business. In the five years prior to the second quarter of 2020, the percentage of retail establishments which closed annually was about 3.5%. During the second quarter of 2020, that percentage more than doubled to 7.2%.

The COVID pandemic continues to be a critical period for our community, and while it has created significant challenges for all of our merchants and staff, it has also created lasting innovations. Our pivot to curbside to-go and online ordering was quickly implemented, and garnered praise and awards from our community.Our team was able to implement a food subsidy program that drove more than $125,000 in increased revenue for our merchants while also alleviating food insecurity. This program provided well over 20,000 meals to our local communities.

Author and theologian C.S. Lewis once said, “failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” When Mother Road Market was still in the concept stage, we had numerous conversations about how we would measure success. As a non-profit organization, revenue milestones by themselves were too simplistic to effectively gauge success. As a business incubator, business longevity was too one-dimensional and didn’t apply to all start-ups. Proof of concept works both ways. Through the lens of traditional capitalism, the concept of success needs to include outcomes that might normally be characterized as “failures.”

As we begin a new year, many changes are coming to Mother Road Market.  We will say goodbye to two of our brick-and-mortar stores at Shops at Mother Road Market.  Owners of Felizsta have decided to focus on time with family, while Graham Collective learned that eCommerce was a more profitable platform for their concept. Both businesses align with our definition of success; supporting great ideas that build community. Soon, we will announce exciting new plans for these spaces, as well as welcome a new food merchant into the Market.

Mother Road Market remains committed to lowering entrepreneurial barriers by allowing small business owners to test concepts with fewer risks through affordable rent, programming, marketing, sales and distribution support and a critical mass of local business to bring customers into the space. What began as Oklahoma’s only non-profit food hall, has now expanded into a vibrant community space, allowing Tulsans and tourists alike to do good, eat well and shop local.