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How To Support A Small Business

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image with text overlay: 5 easy ways you can support a small business

There are 28.2 million businesses in the United States alone, and only half of those will make it five years or more. My parents have always been owners of a small business, and I can remember being five years old and begging my parents to let me come into work with them. I’d sort through boxes in the back and help stock the shelves, and walk away with a crisp $10 bill for my efforts – $10 an hour back in the 90’s was unheard of. 😉

You probably know someone who has their own business, whether it be full-time or part-time, and if that business is run by someone you love, you may be wondering how you can support them!

Today, I’m going to be talking about five easy ways you can support a local small business.

Appreciate Small Business

The first way to support a small business is by actually appreciating them and how much they contribute to the economy. Small businesses offer many benefits to the local community, including increasing jobs, keeping tax dollars within the community and often generating unique products.

Understanding how vital small business growth is to the economy will help you shift your purchasing power away from big box retailers and into local businesses.

Small businesses can often have a hard time competing with mega-corporations and by recognizing how important small businesses are to the economy, you will be able to shift your spending.

Share Their Content On Social Media

Unless you are involved in social media, you may not be aware of how much work goes into creating content for social media and keeping up with a social media marketing plan.

Facebook and Instagram are both highly competitive platforms, and small businesses need to invest a lot of time and resources in order to keep their social media accounts running smoothly. Although it’s “free advertising”, the amount of time it takes to run a successful social media marketing plan means it is technically not free. Not to mention, most small businesses actually do pay to promote themselves through social media.

Sharing the website of small business you like to your Facebook network can be a huge help to a small business – especially if your network contains people who may end up becoming customers for them!

Plus, it really only takes a few seconds to share something and requires no work on your behalf!

Tell Your Network About Them

Word of mouth referrals are very powerful. If you find the opportunity to recommend a small business to a friend, do it! Small businesses don’t have the marketing capacity that large corporations have and often rely on word of mouth referrals.

Buy Their Product

Of course, try to swap in their product from time to time instead of shopping at the big box stores. Local businesses  definitely appreciate when you take the time to put your dollars towards something they offer, instead of going somewhere generic like Wal-Mart.

As a bonus, small businesses produce unique products or services that you likely wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere.

Ask Them

And of course, ask! Ask what ways they’d like to see more support. I know for me and other online businesses, I always feel so thankful when my friends tweet out a new blog post of mine and share my content with their network. Each business is different and there are numerous ways you can offer support without having to buy actually product!

How do you support small businesses? Let me know in the comments below!


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