Tinley Looks to Lure Indie Businesses to Oak Park Avenue

Tinley Park is looking to hire a marketing firm to help lure independent businesses and small, "Mom and Pop" operations to Oak Park Avenue.

On Tuesday night, the Finance and Economic Development Committee discussed a $22,365 contract with Findzall Community Marketing not only to bring small businesses to Oak Park Avenue, but to help those businesses market themselves through Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

"It's a 'grow your own' philosophy," said village Marketing Director Donna Framke.

The village's plans for Oak Park Avenue are for independent, locally owned businesses, rather than the large-scale commercial developments pursued on Harlem Avenue and La Grange Road, said Finance Committee Chairman Dave Seaman.

"(Oak Park Avenue) isn't where you put a Target. It isn't where you put a Circle K," Seaman said at the full village board meeting later that night.

Findzall, which has worked with downtown business districts in Elmhurst, Wheaton, Berwyn and Oak Park, will help coordinate marketing efforts of existing groups like the village's MainStreet Commission, the Oak Park Avenue Mainstreet Association and the Tinley Park Chamber of Commerce if the contract is approved.

In addition to trying to lure small businesses to Oak Park Avenue, the marketing plan will also teach business owners how to use the Internet to promote their own businesses cheaply and effectively in what Seaman called a "train the trainers type program."

"We're going to give them fishing poles and not fish," he said.