There’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t shop locally and from small businesses but the reasons to shop from one are many. But amongst all, we believe the best reason to support small businesses is that it builds a community with kindness at the core of its heart.
While of course, shopping from small businesses is the first way to support them, there are so many things you can do which won’t cost you anything extra but can make a huge difference. So here’s what you can do –
1. Leave a review on their online shop
In this day and age of the internet, a lot of small businesses are setting up online shops/stores to find new customers. If you genuinely like the products/services offered by a small business and know about their online shop, leave them a honest review on their online shop to let others know how good their work is. Nothing helps decide a customer to make a purchase than reading honest reviews about it, isn’t it?
2. Engage with them on social media and give them a shoutout
While following your favorite small business on social media is great, help them a little more by engaging with their content whenever possible. While there’s no foolproof way to crack algorithms of different social media platforms, more engagement often leads to more visibility. So don’t just like but comment and share content created by your favorite small businesses. Also, give them a shoutout on your social media accounts to let your followers know about their existence.
Also Read: 7 Reasons Why You Should be Vocal for Local
3. Ditch the discount and accept the rack rate
Please remember that most small businesses cannot offer discounts like their bigger counterparts and mostly when they do, it is to fight the competition and to not go out of business. The pandemic has also made the situation a little more difficult. Whenever possible for you, ditch the discounts and offer to pay up the full amount. It’s going to be worth it!
4. Recommend to your friends and family
Most small businesses thrive on the word of mouth because what is better than a personal recommendation from a close family member or friend? Don’t forget to recommend your favorite small business to your friends and family even when they aren’t particularly looking for one because they might remember about it in the future when they wish to shop.
5. Offer your skills/expertise in your free time
Since most small businesses have small teams, or in many cases, just an individual responsible for everything, you can volunteer with or offer your skills in fields such as digital marketing, accounting, legal, etc. to help them grow.
At Project Kive, we are building a marketplace for small businesses so that the next time you wish to shop from one, you know where to go. Check out our Marketplace to find some beautiful small businesses near you.
Have an interesting sustainability story to share? Please write to us at hello@projectkive.com. To stay updated with our latest stories, follow us on Instagram.
