Porta's Look!...Small Business Express!

Small Business Guide|

COFFEE VAN COMPANY
Motoya Espresso Express

“ Working for a city, Working for people...
to making community. ”


-Mr. Motoki Ito
Owner, Motoya Espresso Express

More and more Tokyo residents are switching from tea to coffee. And in some cases, it’s thanks to Motoko Ito who runs a small fleet of yellow vans which sell lovingly brewed lattes at key points around the city.

by debtech

by jetalone

by masahiko

The little company offers not just coffee but a moment of human contact amid the hurly burly of the city. It’s staff know their customers on first name basis. That’s the secret, he says, of his success.

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QUALITY OF LIFE

Writer: Tyler Brûlé

“City halls need a new focus on helping small businesses. It was something we did in 2007 but this year we're making a more vocal recommendation for city governments to do more to encourage existing small businesses to flourish and expand, and wide-eyed entrepreneurs to launch fresh new ventures.”


While some cities are better than others at creating an environment that's hospitable to mom, pop and their offspring, none are outstanding. In some cities clued-up developers have been standing-in for government to put the right pieces in place to let small enterprises grow but we're keen to see an easy to use, effective and sustainable shop-front concept spring up in one of our top 25 cities (or any other for that matter) and engage people with ideas, banks and backers, developers and the broader community. Small business is not only the mortar that binds infrastructure and community but in many cases it's what keeps an entire city ticking over. The coming year is going to see a wave of people checking out of shiny glass towers and taking to the streets to hang out their own signs and launch businesses that they've been keeping on the back burner for far too long. A smart city hall would make it its mission to ensure that it could attract and help launch as many of these ventures as possible.

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WE CAN MAKE IT

-the portastylistic