Small Businesses Have Big Impact 3 Business Spotlight: Village Drive-In 4 Turn Negatives Into Positives 6 Get Ready to Go Big and Go GIG 7 I NS I DE CONT ENT S Burgers and More in Bunker Hill BUSINESS solutions S UMME R 2 0 2 5 VOLUME 8 • I SSUE 2
Little by little, a little becomes a lot. This Tanzanian proverb reminds us that with enough time and persistence, it’s possible to turn tiny actions into huge accomplishments. Something small can truly end up being big. This issue of Business Solutions celebrates this theme. It begins on page 3 with Small Businesses Have Big Impact. We can’t repeat this message often enough, and encourage you to join Madison Communications in supporting the small businesses in our community. Speaking of small businesses, pages 4 and 5 feature a Business Spotlight on Village Drive-In (VDI) in Bunker Hill. Generations of people in this small town have treasured it, and the current owners are taking small steps toward making VDI an even bigger deal—one burger or ice cream cone at a time. Madison Communications is helping in these efforts by providing big internet speeds and big reliability. Every little thing said about your business online could potentially have big consequences. However, you can Turn Negatives Into Positives, as you’ll learn on page 6. Then on page 7, Get Ready to Go Big and Go GIG with the fastest internet speed in the region. Is it time to make small upgrades in your communications services? They can lead to big payoffs. Call Madison Communications at 1-800-422-4848 to find out more. Sincerely, The Madison Team 2 S U MM E R 2 0 2 5 Madison Communications www.gomadison.com Main Office: Madison Communications 21668 Double Arch Road Staunton, IL 62088 Mon. – Sat., 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Payment Drop-Off Centers: 118 E State, Hamel, IL 594 Livingston Av, Livingston, IL 315 W Main, Staunton, IL 21668 Double Arch Rd, Staunton, IL Mailing Address: Madison Communications PO Box 29 Staunton, IL 62088 Customer Service: Phone: 1-800-422-4848 Email: infomtc@gomadison.com Fax: 618-635-7213 Publication Contact: Lexy Horton, Marketing and Social Media Specialist Business Solutions is a publication of Madison Communications 21668 Double Arch Road Staunton, IL 62088 Editorial and Circulation Contact: Lexy Horton PO Box 29 Staunton, IL 62088 Extra issues are available to business customer employees on a limited basis while supplies last. Contact: Lexy Horton, PO Box 29, Staunton, IL 62088, 618-635-5000 All brand names and product names used in this publication are trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright© 2025 by Madison Communications and Cornerstone Publishing Group, Inc. BUSINESS solutions
S U MM E R 2 0 2 5 3 BUSINESS solutions Small Businesses Have Big Impact Local economies and communities benefit greatly from this business sector The Small Business Administration defines small businesses as those with fewer than 500 employees, and in 2024, there were 34.8 million small businesses in the U.S. Nearly half of this country’s workforce is employed by small businesses. By the Numbers Here are some additional noteworthy statistics: • Women made up 47.3 percent of workers and owned 43.1 percent of small businesses. • Millennials and Gen Zers are 188 percent more likely to have the aim of creating a side business, compared to Baby Boomers. • Small businesses create 1.5 million jobs annually and account for 64 percent of new jobs created in the U.S. • 70 percent of small businesses are owned and operated by a single person. Impact on Communities The impact of small businesses cannot be overstated. They often sponsor youth sports teams, support area nonprofits and contribute to the growth and vitality of local economies. Small businesses also pay a share of taxes that would otherwise be shifted to homeowners. Many provide leadership in such areas as environmentalism and ethics. In addition, they offer a personal touch that is hard for larger companies to replicate. Supporting Small Businesses Sadly, within five years of starting, about 50 percent of small businesses fail. Reasons for this failure include lack of market need for the products or services, poor budgeting and reluctance to seek assistance when needed. Some business failures are outside the control of business owners, such as the impact of the COVID19 pandemic. Although most of the responsibility for the success of a business is on the owner and employees, consumers can do a lot to support small businesses they believe in. American Express launched Small Business Saturday in 2010, which falls on the Saturday after Thanksgiving each year and encourages holiday shoppers to purchase from small and local businesses on this day. Participating in Small Business Saturday is one way to support small businesses; another is to support them throughout the year. When you purchase products or services from small businesses, let others know when you’re especially pleased with the experience. This is an easy way to help them attract new customers, and can be done through word of mouth or by posting positive reviews on social media. By doing so, you’re helping local small businesses as well as your community thrive.
4 S U MM E R 2 0 2 5 BUSINESS spotlight Donnie O’Dell and Bo Gresham bought VDI in 2018. However, O’Dell’s restaurant career in Illinois started much earlier. He said, “I’m not originally from Bunker Hill. I previously owned King Louie’s Drive-In in Wood River and was there for 19 years.” Located at 212 S. Washington Street, VDI offers what you’d expect from a nostalgic drive-in restaurant—great food at great prices, served in a casual atmosphere with indoor and outdoor seating. The menu includes burgers, sandwiches, baskets, snacks, soups, and salads, plus a wide variety of Dole ice cream selections such as cones, sundaes, concretes, and shakes. Driving the Drive-In Forward While the overall vibe of the place honors its long history, O’Dell has made several significant changes since buying VDI seven years ago. “Before we bought VDI, the cooks weren’t smashing the burgers. I brought the smash burger idea to VDI, based on my experience at King Louie’s Drive-In, and it’s been a hit. Our burgers are delicious. The beef is fresh, never frozen, and we use only fresh produce. We’ve also added a few items to the menu such as Sidewinders, which are fries made with twisted cut potatoes and covered with cheese, chili, sour cream, and bacon,” O’Dell said. He added, “We’ve grown the business substantially, getting about 40% more customers through the doors than before we took over. How did we do it? Well, in addition to our food, we have amazing employees. One of our cooks has been at VDI for 20 years, and he’s right up there with the best of them when it comes to short order cooks.” O’Dell has made additional changes to VDI. In the outdoor seating area, which holds about 40 people, he replaced the gravel with a concrete patio. Plus, he turned VDI into a yearround restaurant. Village Drive-In Village Drive-In (or VDI as the locals call it) has been a beloved staple in Bunker Hill since at least the 1950s. It’s one of the few U.S. drive-ins that still operates as an independent, mom-and-pop business. Get a taste of why Bunker Hill loves this restaurant
S U MM E R 2 0 2 5 5 BUSINESS solutions “Under the previous ownership, VDI was a seasonal business that was closed from the end of October through February. But I’ve kept it open all year long, which people in our little town of about 1,800 really appreciate. This also means we can offer year-round employment for the 20-25 people on our staff,” O’Dell noted. What are the most popular menu items at VDI? He replied, “One of them would definitely be the Double Barrel burger, which has three patties topped with American and Swiss cheese, marinara sauce, and two cheese sticks. Customers also love the Philly Cheese Steak and Spicy Chicken Cheese Steak, and kids are crazy about the Chicken Baskets.” Local, Reliable Connections To keep VDI operating efficiently takes more than a well-equipped kitchen. It also requires reliable services from Madison Communications—500 Mbps Internet and Unlimited Voice. O’Dell said, “We simply couldn’t do business at VDI without a good internet and phone provider. More than half of our food sales come from customers who order online or by phone for pickup. Ordering online is especially popular, and our fast and reliable internet from Madison Communications makes it possible for us to offer this convenient option.” Downtime is rare. The only incident O’Dell could recall was when a truck accidentally pulled down the drop to their phone service. “Madison Communications is only about 20 miles away, and they came very quickly to fix the problem. They understood that without a phone line, we’d lose call-in orders,” he said. Summer Sizzles Open daily from 11 am to 9 pm, summer is by far the busiest season for VDI. Many customers stop by to beat the heat with their favorite cool treat. Just for fun, VDI always creates an ice cream flavor of the month. For example, May’s was Dirt Pie Sundae featuring chocolate ice cream, crushed Oreo cookies, hot fudge, and gummy worms. What will the June ice cream flavor of the month be? Stop by to find out! Ordering online is especially popular, and our fast and reliable internet from Madison Communications makes it possible for us to offer this convenient option.” —DONNIE O’DELL, OWNER, VILLAGE DRIVE-IN Who’s Minding Your Business? Lexy Horton Marketing and Social Media Specialist As a child growing up in Highland, Illinois, Lexy Horton aspired to become a pharmacist. “Although this was always my goal, my perspective shifted after evaluating the duration of the educational timeline,” she said. Fortunately for Madison Communications, Horton earned a bachelor’s degree in Applied Communication Studies with a focus in Public Relations and a minor in Mass Communications from Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville. She is now our Marketing and Social Media Specialist. “I oversee and maintain the company website, develop a wide range of marketing materials, oversee all marketing promotions, and regularly analyze performance metrics. I also coordinate all company-wide events—including our annual Employee Appreciation Week and our Teacher of the Year program,” Horton said. She added, “I’m especially looking forward to the Staunton Balloon Glow in August. It’s always fun to see the excitement on the children’s faces.” Horton got married in 2024, and she and her husband Chase have a rescue puppy named Boston. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and has trips planned to Utah, Colorado, and Florida. Hannah and Brynlee
6 S U MM E R 2 0 2 5 Surveys have shown that about 75 percent of customers online are influenced by other customers’ comments and reviews. But what happens when a customer criticizes your product or service online? Many business managers fear that negative online comments will directly hurt sales. Handled properly, however, a customer’s negative comments can be addressed in a way that actually benefits your business. The appearance of negative comments can be a good thing for your business, at least when they’re mixed with positive comments. This is because if a product or service has all positive comments, this can make customers suspicious of their authenticity. Allowing negative comments to be seen lets your customers know your business is operating transparently. This doesn’t mean you should just let negative comments slide, however. Here are some tips about how to handle negative comments when they occur: • Moderate reviews. Accepting negative comments is part of doing business, but customers can get carried away. Inflammatory comments with harsh language create an unsafe environment and should be removed right away. • Ask for feedback from customers. Customers have opinions whether they let you know them or not. The worst thing is for an unhappy customer to just quietly go to a competitor without letting you know his or her opinion. • Show your interest. Responding publicly to complaints shows you’re engaged with your customers. Other customers will see this and have a more positive view of your business. • Shape the conversation. Customers will talk with friends about how you handled their complaints. If you go the extra mile to meet their needs, that ends up being good advertising for you. Likewise, if you ignore complaints, they’ll tell friends about that too. • Respond promptly. Many of your customers are operating at internet speed and expect issues to be resolved quickly. If you don’t respond to a complaint in a day or two, they’ll assume you don’t really want input. • Make it right. You can’t fix everything, but if you make a public effort to resolve the customer’s problem, that again reflects positively on your business. Making such efforts is an investment in your business’s brand. • Demonstrate commitment. Follow up with customers to make sure the issue was resolved satisfactorily. Let them know you appreciate their feedback and want them to come back to your business. • Learn from repeat complaints. If the same complaints appear multiple times about a product or service, it’s time to address its shortcomings. Service and support for the product may also be an issue. Your reputation online doesn’t depend on having only positive comments about your business; that’s impossible anyway. By responding appropriately to negative comments, you can turn them into changes that lead to positive results. Criticisms from your customers provide valuable opportunities for growth Turn Negatives into Positives
S U MM E R 2 0 2 5 7 BUSINESS solutions Madison Communications offers internet speeds as fast as 1 GIG, giving customers in our service area access to some of the fastest internet in the nation. Just how fast is that? An internet speed of 1 GIG (or Gigabit per second) is equal to 1,000 Mbps (or Megabits per second). To give you a frame of reference, let’s say a small office currently has a 100 Mbps internet connection. A speed upgrade from 100 Mbps to 1 GIG would be the equivalent of going from driving a car at 10 mph to driving it at 100 mph—quite a difference! Businesses of all sizes and types are expressing interest in GIG internet. Which may leave you wondering, “What can you do with a GIG?” The simple answer is this: You can do whatever your business is doing now—such as downloading files—but it will get done in seconds instead of minutes, or minutes instead of hours. GIG speeds are a huge timesaver and productivity booster. With GIG internet, your business can: • Download large files, videos, images, reports, invoices, and records more quickly. • Connect more users with more devices. • Process multiple card transactions faster. • Run more cloud-based apps, services, and backups simultaneously. But it’s not only about moving files faster. It’s also about enhancing performance. GIG internet from Madison Communications improves the quality of streaming video by vastly reducing buffering and opens the door to the optimal use of realtime collaboration tools. We’ve listed what businesses can do with GIG internet. Now let’s think about what communities can do. This level of internet speed can help attract new businesses to a community and enable existing businesses to enhance their performance. In addition, it can lay the groundwork for more telehealth services, online education, and other online resources. The Madison Communications fiber-based network provides the fastest internet service in the region with speeds as fast as 1 GIG! Call 1-800-422-4848 or visit gomadison.com to learn more. Get Ready to Go Big and Go GIG Tips for Using ChatGPT at Your Business ChatGPT is a generative AI chatbot, developed by OpenAI, that can develop responses to almost any written prompt. It uses advanced machine learning techniques to “learn” language from huge amounts of online data. There are many ways to use ChatGPT at work. For example, ChatGPT can function as a writing assistant and provide a rough draft of a customer email, newsletter article, social media post, or blog. It can also help you digest a highly technical or complex topic by giving you a succinct, clear overviews in layman’s terms. However, there are potential pitfalls to using ChatGPT, so follow these best practices: • Fact-check and proofread. ChatGPT knows a lot about almost everything. Even so, it’s not perfect. Always factcheck the output of ChatGPT and proofread to catch any writing errors. Remember, it’s a starting point and not finished text. • Push the program. If you’re not satisfied with an answer from ChatGPT, give it a revised prompt and ask it to try again to better match your desired outcome. ChatGPT is free to use, and you can access it by visiting chat.openai.com and creating an OpenAI account.
You need fast and reliable internet to run your business efficiently, and you need local support to address challenges promptly. Connect with Madison Communications to get it all. Talk to our local team at 1-800-422-4848. www.gomadison.com FAST CONNECTIONS RELIABLE CONNECTIONS LOCAL CONNECTIONS
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