Current economic hardships are making it tougher than ever for small businesses to successfully launch. These businesses, however, often serve as foundations for strong communities that residents enjoy and benefit from.

DeKalb has an especially delicate balance to preserve between students and residents and currently is home to many successful small businesses.

The vacant building at 1000 W. Lincoln Highway has been home to several different small businesses in the past few years.

Obviously, none of the businesses have succeeded, due to various problems including license violations.

It’s time for the building to be home to a business that DeKalb residents can be proud to have in their community.

On March 17, an application for a class E liquor license was reviewed at the City of DeKalb’s liquor commission meeting. The proposal came from an entrepreneur who hopes to open a restaurant and bar and retain the name “Detox” that was used by the most recent business at that address.

The business plan for Detox outlined a restaurant and bar that would serve both food and alcoholic beverages, have occasional live entertainment and cater to both students and permanent residents. This fact, however, was the only thing made clear in the business plan.

The rest of the plan was ripe with technical errors that a quick spell check would have remedied, vague generalizations about what DeKalb needs in a small business and, overall, was a poorly planned proposal. In order to be taken seriously, the proposed owners of Detox should ditch the disgraced name. “Detox” isn’t exactly an appealing name for an eatery. Also, it has bad connotations derived from the business that had previously been located in that building. The Northern Star reported that at the March 17 liquor commission meeting, commission member Michael Embry said, “In the community, [Detox] looks like a bad name.”

Margaret Powers and Matthew Legg, proposed owner and manager of the business, should shed the tainted name, revamp their business plan and take the business proposal seriously so the liquor commission will do the same.

The last thing DeKalb needs is another business to take over 1000 W. Lincoln Highway and fail.

As students, we want to see a quality business take over the vacant location.We don’t, however, want to see a poorly executed plan cause a downfall similar to what claimed each of the businesses that inhabited that building previously.

A bad business plan is the first step toward failure, and no one in DeKalb wants to see another local business fail.