CLEVELAND — After seven seasons in the books, the Cleveland Flea is changing things up in 2020 with the decision to do away with monthly markets.
Cleveland Flea announced it will not continue the monthly markets that brought small businesses and Clevelanders to one place, after organizers decided it was time to stop and refocus.
"What's become clear is that it's time to pause and focus on how we can innovate for the next decade (and beyond) and that will take us interrupting the monthly market chaos and instead focus on building the operations, system and knowledge that will make us stronger," Cleveland Flea said in an Instagram post.
Cleveland Flea confirmed to News 5 that rather than hosting larger markets, it will instead do some pop-ups likely in the summer, but dates are yet to be determine.
With the new year, Cleveland Flea says 2020 will be a year of growth and planning.
"Instead, look for us to get back to our roots this year—vintage / secondhand markets this Summer and business development and coaching for those in brand-building mode. We’ve learned how diverse the needs are within a small biz community and now it’s time to work with that knowledge in mind rather than ignore it and continue doing what we’ve always been doing," said Cleveland Flea.
Cleveland Flea will offer more focused mentoring and small business lessons that cater to each individual business rather than one size fits all.
Stephanie Sheldon started Cleveland Flea in 2013 when small businesses were not as abundant as they are now.
She said finding businesses to take part in Cleveland Flea was challenging, so she knew that she needed to build an incubator for businesses.
Sheldon said monthly markets were created to help businesses figure out what customers wanted to buy, work with deadlines and have the support of other small Cleveland-area businesses.
Going into a new year, Sheldon said she will use the time away from monthly markets to study markets, develop a new team and even a technology platform for business incubators like Cleveland Flea.
RELATED: The story, and the woman, behind the Cleveland Flea
