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Published: Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009 / Updated: Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009 10:49 AM

Baxter Villages' SweeTreats asks public for help

Owners trying to survive as local small businesses feeling economic crunch

FORT MILL -- Anita Sayago doles out ice cream, coffee and other goodies to her customers at SweeTreats in Baxter Village, but recently the economy has served her only a bitter pill.

The busy summer months gave way to a troubling fall and winter -- and a 75 percent drop in revenue.

"It went from insane to desolate," she said of business.

Sayago, who bought the business with her husband, Jose, in April, knew SweeTreats was largely a seasonal destination, but she never expected the economy to pull the bottom out from under them.

"I expected it to be slow, I didn't expect it to be dead," said Sayago, 41, who moved to Fort Mill from New Jersey two years ago.

Sayago says SweeTreats, one of the signature eateries along Market Street in affluent Baxter Village, will close Friday unless finances turn around quickly. It would be the latest in a string of York County small businesses to close in recent months, and it illustrates the struggle they face to stay afloat in tough financial times -- even in typically higher-income areas such as Fort Mill.

She said the store needs to make $10,000 -- or close to it -- by Friday to stay afloat. Sayago has been impressed with the public's response; She said gift cards that will increase in value have been selling steadily and expects more customers to come in for them today and tomorrow.

"I just can't see not making it after working so hard and putting everything we have into it...literally," Sayago said in an e-mail Thursday morning. "We are so grateful for the outpouring of support."

"It's challenging everywhere," said Rob Youngblood, president of the York County Regional Chamber of Commerce. "Certainly, small businesses are more at risk than any."

Small businesses -- typically those with 10 employees or fewer -- make up 85 percent or more of the chamber's membership, Youngblood said. That means Youngblood's hearing from all corners about the effects of the economic downturn.

"We're concerned about that," he said. "We want to do all that we can to keep them open and keep them thriving. Surviving is the goal at this time until things turn around."

Last year, the chamber formed the Small Business Council to help make owners aware of the importance of networking and to offer

For Mill Times Editor Michael Harrison contributed to this story.