This past week this site, Inland Northwest Business Watch past 15 years in existence, so I (Matt Behringer) just wanted to come on here and say Thank You! Thank you for reading the site, interacting with the social media pages, the emails, donations, sponsorships, the ones telling others of things your saw on here...to everyone just thank you!
In 2011 I started this just for fun off my weird obsession of keeping track of what was being built and/or opening where. For instance, I loved trying to restaurants but found at the time there wasn't very many ways to find them until they started advertising or some word of mouth started spreading. But those businesses, especially the small ones could use some help getting off the ground and I found there we're a lot of noisy people out there like myself. It was a match made in Heaven.
Today, there's a few real estate agents and influencers sharing about the same stuff I am, and in much more up to date ways like TikTok and Instagram Reels (although I'm often still first). But I'm not stopping and I still love what I'm doing, although I also think the site hasn't grown much in some time. Maybe I'm crazy but a good scoop can make an entire day for me.
I also enjoy seeing how this niche has evolved, when I started reporting on construction and business news, in Spokane and the Inland Northwest there was just me and a similar newspaper column in the Coeur d' Alene Press. I'd guess there we're not more than 10 sites/blogs like this in the nation, and now most major markets have one. Ranging from little hobby sites or social media pages to a couple with full newsrooms. Here's a few I want to mention:
Marysville & Arlington Retail News Curious about new places in Marysville & Arlington, WA? This up-and-coming page is your go to source https://www.facebook.com/marysville.arlington.retail.news/
Cheyenne, WY based blogger Optopolis (https://optopolis.blogspot.com/) recently took to leap into what he calls a "print blog" named Cheyenne's Retail Minute, (https://linktr.ee/RetailMinute) covering new places around Cheyenne and surrounding communities and available to be picked up at a number of locations.
Although they dabble into other news including politics, one of the largest sites and most well done in this niche is defiantly Boise's BoiseDev (https://boisedev.com) . They actually are celebrating 10 years in business! Congratulations to Don Day and your team if you see this!
So, what's next for Inland Northwest Business Watch? The same coverage of new businesses, restaurants and construction projects in Spokane and Kootenai County that you expect. I'm not a full-time resident of the area anymore (left for Ohio in 2023) but wouldn't ever want to give this up, my connections, sources and just the internet make it possible. This blog is my passion project and quite frankly Spokane gets a bad rap but it's my happy place and I want to keep promoting it. Spokane has an amazing business and culinary community that should get as much of a lime light as possible.
If you know of a place that's worth coverage on Inland Northwest Business Watch or a tip on something coming to the Spokane and Coeur d' Alene area, send me an email anytime to matt.behringer@inlandnwbusiness.com .
And, yes I take donations, I know so does everyone else and they're not required but I'll do a happy dance for each one. If it's big enough, maybe I'll record it too!
Page for donations: https://inlandbusiness2.blogspot.com/
And, last but not least thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a part of the Inland Northwest Business Watch family!!!
