02/13/2026
My 1st time speaking at a city council meeting.
My mouth was a little dry from nerves but our voices need to be heard!🙈✨️💕
Small businesses need to stand up for what we know is right & wrong. We can complain to each other all day long, we can vent to our friends, families, clients, partners. We can hope things will get better. We can pray for fair treatment. But has that really changed anything?
We work relentlessly to serve our communities. We create jobs, invest our savings, our time, our energy, and our hearts into the spaces we build. We sign long term leases, we take risks, and we pour everything we have into making something meaningful. And then we are told to absorb extremely high charges on properties we do not own.
Repairs. Improvements. Upgrades that increase someone else’s property value. We dont have any say or input, juat expected to pay thousands. Thousands passed through to tenants who are simply trying to survive? At some point, we have to ask ourselves how this became normal? And these arbitrary, sometimes inconsistent charges can be the reason landlords can say you've defaulted your lease? Because we're not paying for their upgrades??? How is this even real?!
The difference now is that we have platforms. We have the ability to speak publicly about what is happening. We are no longer limited to quiet conversations behind closed doors. Our voices can reach beyond our storefronts and into our cities, our states, and beyond.
So let’s use them!
Let’s tell the truth about what small businesses are facing. Let’s have the hard conversations. Let’s stop pretending these costs are just part of the deal when they are unfair and unsustainable. Let’s push for change so small businesses are not stuck carrying financial burdens that were never meant to be ours alone.
This is not just a Reno issue. It is happening everywhere.
And if we truly want small businesses to survive, if we want future entrepreneurs to believe that this dream is still possible, then we cannot stay silent anymore!!
Time to speak up more and protect our investments✨️🙏
l
