Filed Under:  Departments, Entrepreneur View

Why Shop Local?

28th November 2011   ·   0 Comments

Bookmark and Share

The 2nd Annual Small Business Saturday is this coming Saturday, November 26.This day is a national initiative and a perfect opportunity to support small businesses by doing some holiday shopping at locally owned, independent stores and eating out at your favorite locally owned restaurants. Spearheaded by American Express, this initiative encourages small businesses to create promotional materials and rally their customers to participate, but it has a great impact on the city itself.

Why is shopping local so important? Here are a couple of reasons.

1. Shopping local fuels the local economy.

By supporting small businesses in your city, you support businesses that have been hit the hardest by the recession. You also help these businesses compete against big national chains.

2. Shopping local creates more local jobs.

Your support helps increase revenue, helping the business grow and requiring the business to hire more employees.

3. Shopping local helps communities and neighborhoods.

With the support of loyal customers, communities are built. A unique camaraderie is fostered and many times, a community will help rally for support when a business needs it.

4. Shopping local helps build vibrant and unique neighborhoods.

Instead of a shopping center containing another Walmart and Starbucks, unique businesses help neighborhoods build personality and a unique culture.

5. Shopping local fuels the innovation of local entrepreneurs and the local culture of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is an important factor in improving the economy and as entrepreneurship grows in your city, so do organizations that support entrepreneurs and the availability of mentorship.

 

We encourage you to help raise awareness of the local businesses in the community and raise awareness of the importance of small businesses by supporting and shopping local. For more information about Small Business Saturday, check out the website.

To find local Austin businesses, visit the Go Local Card website.

About

Cole Harmonson is the president and CEO of Far West Capital, providing working capital to businesses throughout Texas. He can be reached at 512.527.1100 or cole@farwestcap.com

Readers Comments (0)





Departments

Nell Edgington - Social Velocity A Career Guide For a New Generation of Change Makers
Billy Parish and Dev Aujla’s new book, Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money and Community ...
mj-jolda Bagels by the Batch
What’s with all the hype about “Artisan Bagels” by Dunkin' Donuts?  Does anyone even ...
Hall_Martin-150x150 Understanding the deal from the Investor’s perspective
The entrepreneur and the investor both look at the same deal but they come ...
marc nathan Entrepreneur Events: OpenCoffee
Today’s OpenCoffee brought new and familiar faces to CoffeeGroundz.  For the uninitiated, OpenCoffee is ...
Ben Dyer new 1-23-12 It’s Facebook Week…
A few weeks back I wrote a post asking where are the Facebook startup ...
Bryan-Menell Mass Relevance Secures $3.3 Million Series A
Mass Relevance, the technology leader in social curation and integration, today announced that it ...
Thom-Singer-150x150 Networking Shortcuts for Career Success
There are no shortcuts to career success.  It takes time to building long-term and ...
Nell Edgington - Social Velocity Reader Question: How to Find Major Donors
Last month I launched a new regular series on the blog called Reader Questions. ...
Jamie-Brown The Formula for Making Client Relationships Bloom video
  I work with the best clients. That may sound like "spin" coming from a public ...
Thom Singer Does LinkedIn Matter? video
I was recently the speaker at a business event.  After my talk (about the ...