46 - From Local Business Owner to Local Business Champion with Cherie Edilson from Member Marketplace Inc Artwork

Local to Legend

Local to Legend is the podcast for local business owners like you, looking for the resources and tools needed to create a scalable, profitable, simply irresistible brand. What makes local businesses different than small businesses? Local businesses have their own little ecosystems they work within. Some local business owners have the hopes of being sold to Unilever (Schmidt’s) or getting a HGTV show (Joanna Gaines) or being sold in Target (Ben & Jerry’s). Others want to be a legend in their own community where people know, love, trust, and refer them all the time. The cool thing about being a legend is it’s fairly subjective, right? We have legends in Des Moines, Iowa (my home base), but they aren’t legends in the country. We have legends in the country, but they aren’t legends in the world. What I’ve come to discover in hundreds of conversations with local business owner is this: they desire MORE for themselves. They want to expand, but how? They want to grow their business, but what do they do? They want to pivot, but what will that mean? Local to Legend is about that conversation. And I'm thrilled to have you here.

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Local to Legend

46 - From Local Business Owner to Local Business Champion with Cherie Edilson from Member Marketplace Inc

January 04, 2022 • Emily Steele

In this week’s podcast episode, Emily chats with Cherie Edilson, local business enthusiast and CEO of Member Marketplace Inc. Cherie digs into her journey as a local business owner and shares how that experience gave her an honest look at the challenges small businesses have to face. This spurred her to create Member Marketplace Inc, a business that makes it easy to implement an e-commerce marketplace for your community or organization, creating a one-stop shop for buying products and services from businesses online.

After becoming a mother, Cherie launched a hair bow business called the Pink Barrette when she was looking for something with flexible hours that would still allow her to stay home with her kids. She started selling at farmers markets, on her website, and on Amazon.

It was at one of these farmers markets that she realized a lot of local businesses relied heavily on events to sell their products. Because of her experience with the Pink Barrette, she knew the impact that e-commerce could have on a local business. This led her to create Member Marketplace with her husband, a web developer. From there they’ve expanded to work with local businesses and organizations all over the country including Shop Iowa, Shop Made In Nevada, California Shop Small, and Shop North Dakota.

Cherie chats more in this episode about her pivot from local business to startup and what it’s been like to be a part of a startup accelerator. She shares more about how her business model has changed and the vision for the future of MemberMarketplace Inc.

Check out this episode to learn more about Member Marketplace Inc and the power of e-commerce!

Tune in for topics like:

Cherie’s journey to starting her own local business
Lessons Cherie learned from her first business
Common challenges local business owners face
Joining a business accelerator program
How the pandemic affected the MemberMarketplace business model
Why e-commerce is such a powerful tool for small and local businesses

Links from the episode:

Member Marketplace Website
Shop Where I Live Website
Cherie's LinkedIn
Shop Iowa Instagram
Shop Iowa Website
Use code LEGEND to get 10% off all House of Wise products

Follow me (Emily Steele) (Love Local) on Instagram for a little business + a little life, and a whole lot of positive energy!