Main Street

Attract more visitors.

Secure more businesses.

Generate more tax revenue.

Downtown DNA

On-Site Audits & Consultations

Many small communities are struggling today. Identities are lost. Purpose, goals, and missions are diluted or weakened. Leaders are at odds. Some communities are surviving in spite of themselves. We “get” what makes a successful main street tick. We also know what makes them sick.

How healthy is your downtown?

Find out what’s working for you and/or against you. Our experts will determine strengths and weaknesses to help you make informed, effective decisions when it comes to updating your image, identity, brand, signage, building façades, streetscape amenities, and business mix.

Click here to read more about our four valuable audits and consults.

City on Display

Attractions

What brings customers downtown? Destination retail, unique food offerings, cool art installations that represent your community’s offerings, programmed green spaces, and heritage centers that provide amazing visitor experiences. These are what get people moving, shopping, sharing, and coming back again and again. Our team can identify, create, and help implement all of these vital components.

Windows of Opportunity

Ugly Ducklings

Tired of having to deal with dark empty storefronts and/or unused green space? Can’t get your merchants to improve their window displays? Bring our ‘display brigade’ to town and watch the transformation begin. They’ll clean up, dress up, and lighten up all your eyesores. Watch them create some visual magic in your downtown!

Click here to view vacant windows we have transformed.

Click here to view storefronts we have designed.

Up Your Alleys

Illuminate Dark Spaces

Most alleyways are dark, dirty, (sometimes dangerous) and foreboding corridors. Many are hardly ever used as thoroughfares anymore and they aren’t maintained. Why not turn these empty spaces into welcoming passageways? Clean them up, illuminate them and add some decorative elements to bring them back to life. Retailworks, Inc can help you shed light on these dark spaces with the addition of planters, florals, colorful wall murals, brick pavers, lighting and more.

48 Hour Makeover

48 Hour Makeover

Fresh perspective brings new momentum. It’s not just about a new logo or brand, it’s how you market these pieces, and how you integrate them with events, downtown decor, videos and social media. Work with our team to give life to existing efforts, find new opportunities, and develop renewed messages that speak clearly to targeted markets. Need an injection of quick results? Ask us about our “48-hour Makeover!”

Click here to check out our 48-hour makeovers!

Informative & Inspirational Seminars

A few minutes with Lyn Falk, and you’ll realize she truly lives and breathes retail. You’ll also realize meeting someone with her depth of knowledge and over 30 years of experience is hard to find. Lyn has turned her experience into inspiring and digestible seminars. She has been a featured speaker at numerous seminars across the country (click here for a list). She has streamlined her research and distilled the information into actionable items so main street directors and main street merchants can breathe new life into the hearts of their downtowns.

Seminar topics include:

  • Revitalizing Your Downtown Image/Brand
  • Creating a Memorable Downtown Experience
  • Creating a Profitable Retail/Business Image & Interior
  • Proven Display Tactics & Visual Merchandising Techniques

Click here for Lyn Falk’s Bio.

  • “Lyn Falk is one of our favorite and most requested consultants. She has done a great job with presentations and one–on–one consultations with businesses. I see the results of her work every time I am in a Main Street community that has used her services.”

    Jim Engle
    Director of Wisconsin Main Street Program
  • “Thank you with all my heart for the genuine work you provided our business owners this week. We are so fortunate to have had you come to town and look at us from a new perspective! Your expertise and sincere interest in each business were so apparent. Thank you very much, Lyn!”

    Sue Besser
    Executive Director of Downtown Rhinelander, Wisconsin
  • “I love Lyn!…I could not have been more pleased with your selection of Lyn Falk to work with my downtown!…I am not artistically inclined and never held a view of what really can influence a customer or purchase through good design.”

    Barb Nelson
    Director of Monroe Main Street, Monroe, Wisconsin
  • “…we received some great feedback from your workshop and consultations. Local business owners were able to walk away with actionable advice on how to improve sales and profits in their retail stores. Hope to see you again soon!”

    Greg Bouhl
    Director of Entrepreneurship & Business Development, Southern Illinois University - Office of Innovation and Economic Development

Main Street Client List

*multiple visits

Downtown Business Districts –  In Wisconsin

Algoma
Appleton
Beloit
Black River
Brillion
Cedarburg
Chippewa Falls
Columbus
Darlington
Eagle River*
Elkhorn
Ellsworth
Elroy
Fond du Lac*
Green Bay*
Hurley
LaCrosse
Lake Mills*
Land O’ Lakes
Madison*
Marshfield*
Mauston
Menomonee Falls
Menomonie
Merrill
Middleton
Milwaukee*
Monona
Monroe
Osceola*
Platteville
Plymouth
Port Washington
Portage*
Prairie du Chien
Racine
Rhinelander
Rice Lake*
Richland Center*
Ripon*
Sheboygan Falls*
Shorewood
Sparta
Sturgeon Bay
Tomah
Two Rivers*
Viroqua*
Waterford
Watertown*
Waukesha*
Waupun*
Wausau*
Wauwatosa, WI
West Allis*
Whitefish Bay
Whitewater

Downtown Business Districts – Outside of Wisconsin

Carbondale, IL
Centerville, IA
Cleveland, OH
Dover, NH
Freeport, IL
Gettysburg, PA

Jacksonville, IL (statewide presentation)
Libertyville, IL (statewide presentation)
Menominee, MI Niles, MI
Sioux City, IA (statewide presentation)

Wauseca, MN
Westfield, NJ

Lyn has been a presenter at the following National Main Street Conferences

Kansas City, 2018
Pittsburgh, 2017
Milwaukee, 2016
Atlanta, 2015
Detroit, 2014
Boston, 2000

main street america

Are you ready to turn your downtown into a destination?