Login Form

Roanoke Rapids Main Street

Uptown. Downtown. Your Town.

Free Online Workshop | Hosted by SCORE

Thinking about opening a business on Main Street, growing an existing shop, or adapting to what customers want next? This free, one-hour online workshop is a great place to start.

SCORE is hosting a live session focused on what’s ahead for small businesses in 2026, with practical insights you can use whether you’re in the idea stage or already open.

Event Details

  • Date: January 29, 2026

  • Time: 1:00 pm

  • Format: Live, online

  • Cost: Free

  • Duration: 1 hour

  • Registration: Hottest Business Ideas 

What You’ll Learn

This session breaks down big trends in a way that makes sense for local businesses, including:

  • How America’s changing demographics affect small and Main Street businesses

  • Why Gen Z is now a major consumer force and what that means for retail and services

  • What motivates today’s customers to buy

  • Business ideas that tend to perform well even during economic slowdowns

  • Emerging retail concepts worth watching

  • Smarter ways to reach and connect with modern customers

Featured Presenter

The workshop is led by Rieva Lesonsky, a nationally recognized small business advocate and founder of Small Business Currents, a company focused on entrepreneurship and independent business success.

About SCORE

SCORE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping small businesses start, grow, and thrive through free mentoring, workshops, and resources. SCORE is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.


Learn more by visiting SCORE at Hottest Business Ideas 

Affiliate logo    mslogo

Main Street America™ has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 35 years. Today it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Roanoke Rapids is a North Carolina Main Street community, designated by the N.C. Department of Commerce Main Street & Rural Planning Center.  Main Street Roanoke Rapids is charged with administering the program at the local level and building public-private partnerships to spur economic development that achieves measurable results such as investment, business growth, and job creation.