How your small business can profit from this summer’s events | Expert Opinion

With more than half a million visitors expected in Philadelphia in a couple weeks for the FIFA World Cup, the area’s small businesses have many opportunities to profit.

The first Philadelphia game of the FIFA World Cup is June 14. The 39-day FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill begins a few days before that.

“Major events like these create attention, visitors, and excitement,” said Meg Kane, Philadelphia Soccer 2026’s host city executive for the FIFA World Cup. “Small businesses should try to be visible and discoverable to fully leverage the opportunity.”

For the past few years Kane has been working with many local businesses to prepare for what could be a very profitable summer. The lessons she’s learned could be useful well beyond the World Cup.

Businesses need not be “officially sponsored” to take advantage of the moment.

There’s no official permission required to leverage the World Cup in your marketing, as long as you’re not misusing protected logos or trademarks. Instead, Kane said, it’s more important to focus on creatively participating in the excitement around the event.

“It’s not about formally playing in the space,” she said. “It’s about leveraging the opportunity. And your marketing approach should change depending on the event.”

The World Cup is an opportunity for small-business owners to celebrate their cultural backgrounds and national authenticity, and it can catch the eyes of fans visiting the city.

“Display the flag,” Kane said. “Create signage in different languages. When you’re inviting the world to come, you need to reflect the world that you’re inviting.”

An example of this is Brauhaus Schmitz, a German beer hall and bar in Queen Village. It’s not only showing all the World Cup matches on big screen TVs but hosting five outdoor watch parties, as well as a block party on the Fourth of July. It’s also running specials and happy hours to bring in the fans. And all with an unabashed German flair.

“Our World Cup mode is activated!” the beer hall’s website says.

“I cannot believe it’s finally here,” said Doug Hager, owner of Brauhaus Schmitz. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase our business and our great city on a global stage.”

Hager said it’s been a full year of planning for the event.

“No one matches the passion and excitement of Philly sports fans,” he said. “Now combine that energy with thousands of international football fans? It’s going to be an unforgettable summer, and we are thrilled to be right in the middle of it.”

Whether it’s the World Cup or some other large event, it’s critical to make sure incoming visitors (and potential customers) can find your business online. Most visitors will be searching for restaurants, services, and products on their phones. You want to make sure they will find your business.

Getting your Google profile up to date is one big step, along with ensuring that your website is current with updated photos, reviews, menus, hours, and refreshed keywords.

Try leveraging free resources like the Destination Optimization Program, which was run by Visit Philadelphia in the spring to help local businesses improve their digital presence.

All of this will better position your business to be found. But you can take other steps to find customers too. Kane says a number of national organizations and many fan groups are organizing trips to Philadelphia.

“Most of them are on social media,” she said. “Spend the time to dig.”

Once you find a fan site or group, the business can offer a partnership or special discount program, she said. Partnering with other businesses on sales, promotions, events, and project-sharing can also be a great way to gain attention while spreading costs, Kane added.

Whenever a big event is planned for Philadelphia, there’s an organization behind it.

For the World Cup, it’s FIFA. For baseball’s all-star game, it’s Major League Baseball. For this summer’s Semiquincentennial, it’s America250.

Usually, the Philadelphia Visitor Center will be heavily involved. Kane says it’s important to reach out to these organizations early to make sure they know your business wants to be involved. Supporting local small businesses is always one of their priorities. When the opportunity arises, you want to be on their list.

“It’s about getting on people’s radar,” she said.

“We’ve been collecting more than 5,000 different organized businesses, small, medium and large, who have wanted to flag their services for us. When we’ve needed stuff, that’s the list we’ve gone back to,” Kane said. “And that list oftentimes get passed down to other organizations planning future events in the city.”

Delco Balloons in Aston, for example, was proactive about drumming up World Cup business.

“The owners introduced themselves to us early on and then made sure to follow up,” Kane said. “And when we discovered we needed balloon installations at an event, we turned to them because they made themselves known. Visibility and responsiveness often matter more than size.”

“Working with FIFA was an incredible honor and a milestone for Delco Balloons,” said Deyssi Cusba, Delco Balloons’ owner. “Being part of such a globally recognized event allowed us to showcase our creativity, professionalism, and passion for creating unforgettable experiences.”