A year and a half ago, Danielle and Ken Harmon made a pact.
Just before they were about to pop open their favorite bottle of wine — an Orin Swift Papillon — the Harmons decided to wait. Instead, they put a handwritten note on the bottle: “To be opened on wine bar opening night.”
Now a years-long dream to launch a small business is turning into a reality, and they can’t help but notice that the pandemic has played an important role.
“Life's too short to keep holding off on your dreams,” Danielle Harmon said. “We had lots of time to talk about it, and it kind of just came to the point of, ‘If we don't do this now, are we ever going to really do this?’ And if that's the case, then let's try.”
Despite all of the bad that has come out of Covid-19, for some in Wichita the pandemic has created some unexpected opportunities, especially when it comes to entrepreneurship and the attraction of new talent.
A new wine business
For years, the wine-loving couple had been toying with the idea of leaving their corporate jobs at Koch Industries to open a self-serve wine bar downtown — a new concept that they’ve seen in other major cities.
When the Harmons were both laid off from their jobs at Koch earlier this year — unrelated to Covid-19 — it felt like a sign. Combine that with a global pandemic that forced families to stay home for months — it was the perfect opportunity to take a leap.
"It allowed us the opportunity to have time together, to dig into the details and to really crunch the numbers," Ken Harmon said.
The Harmons are now searching for a downtown space to lease for their new business, called Alzavino Wine Tavern — a play off the Italian word for “wine thief." They're hoping for a fall opening.
Alzavino Wine Tavern will have about 16 wines on tap that customers can pour themselves, as well as table service by the glass or bottle. A private room can be reserved for about 10 people.
Coming up with a business strategy during such uncertain times has been a challenge, they say.
"It's been emotional, just trying to figure out are we doing the right thing? Is this the right time?" Danielle Harmon asked. "We really do try to see it as being optimistic.... We're kind of giving people a little bit of an excitement, of something to look forward to."
Starting new
The numbers seem to suggest that many other Wichitans are striking out with new business ventures either out of necessity or opportunity presented by the pandemic.
According to public records data compiled by the WBJ, new business corporation filings have spiked in recent weeks, hitting 100 for the week ending June 12.
That was up 75% from the same week year over year, while the recent low point for filings — 17 in the last week of March — was down nearly 70% year over year.
Leaders with entrepreneurial-focused organization NXTUS in Wichita, which rebranded early in the year from e2e, say that is indicative of a rise in entrepreneurship being seen locally and nationally.
And for its local corporate partners, who are looking for startups to help them quickly innovate with new ideas and technology, the message has been that entrepreneurship has never been more important, says Josh Oeding, president and CEO of NXTUS.
“They’ve said, ‘We need more of this and we need more of it even faster,'” he says.
Striking out
Having a time of reflection also accelerated opportunities for Dan Shurtz, who has been vice president of sales and strategy at Oxford Senior Living since 2017. He'll be leaving the company at the end of this month to begin working as an executive vice president and partner with Aletheia Digital.
Shurtz had a connection with the Georgia-based company’s founder through his 10 years at KSN-TV in Wichita, and had been helping the all-digital marketing and advertising company to varying degrees on the side.
Then the pandemic drove significant increases for many of Aletheia’s clients and it became clear that the time to make a bigger splash with the company had come, Shurtz says.
He will remain in Wichita, but will, in addition to the nationwide clients he’ll help serve, take on the responsibility of opening and growing Aletheia Digital in Kansas.
“I hate leaving a great company and I was part of a great team, but the opportunity was knocking and I was influenced by the Covid dynamic that now was the time,” Shurtz says. “There’s a lot of folks taking that leap right now.”
What Covid-19 could mean for talent
Nationally, there are reports that residents in urban, more densely packed cities are looking to find safe harbor in the Midwest, where the threat of the virus may be lower.
That could mean good things for Wichita's efforts to attract new talent, says Anne Marie Coughlin, the Greater Wichita Partnership's vice president of talent.
She says it's too early to tell if there's data that points to the trend in Wichita, but it's a movement not unfamiliar to the Partnership.
"We knew there was a trend of people wanting to leave larger cities, and the reasons are varying," Coughlin said. "So that was already happening, and then COVID-19 comes in."
Beyond the safety issues, Coughlin said big-city dwellers have to consider the possibility of unexpectedly losing their job and being stuck with a $3,000 monthly rent payment. Wichita's low cost of living may suddenly become much more enticing.
"Then there's also the idea of quality of life," she said. "We've seen people talking about wanting to be a part of a community when you are going through a crisis like that, and that's something that a city and a region like Wichita can offer to people who are coming out of some of those larger cities."
And with remote work becoming more accepted at companies nationwide, a move to the Midwest gets even easier.
Schane Gross, owner of The Anchor, a Wichita bar and restaurant, says her College Hill home has been on the market for a while, but suddenly there's been renewed interest from families looking to move here from Chicago and California.
"They want to get away from the big crowded places," she said. "And so far, everybody I've shown my home to — it's been like six different people — they're all people that work from home, and they just want to be somewhere a little more spread out."
The new premium on remote work, say both Oeding, of NXTUS, and Mary Beth Jarvis, executive director of the organization’s pilot accelerator, is a real opportunity for Wichita.
Recent efforts on quality of life and the region’s low cost of living could help the city combine growing its own entrepreneurs with attracting those who might be increasingly considering leaving more populated urban centers.
And that could mean a silver lining of the pandemic’s cloud is a chance to reverse the brain drain and talent migration seen after last decade’s financial collapse.
“I think that puts Wichita in the catbird seat,” Jarvis says. “But the fact is, it depends on what we do with it.”
