Hello, and welcome to #ThinkCreateReflect, where we take a break from our busy lives to do some thinking and making toward the future of our businesses.
Today, as most of you probably know, is Black Friday – and that means tomorrow is Small Business Saturday. So we thought we’d take a minute to post the following question:
How can you support the small businesses in your area this season?
No business owner can live as an island all to herself – even if we sometimes wish we could. The truth is, your business can thrive, grow, and just be better as a result of the collaborations you enter into with other small business owners. So this Small Business Saturday, our challenge to you is to find a way to support a small business in your area – or, even better, to try to forge a new collaboration!
Some ideas:
- The easy one – buy something from them tomorrow!
- If you sell handmade goods, try finding a shop in your area that might like to consign them or wholesale them.
- Find a business that provides a different product or service from your own and see if you can team up on an event (say, find a bakery to bring cupcakes sell in your booth at your next craft fair, or a graphic designer to design the art work for your next logo product).
- Use your blog, website, or brick & mortar store to advertise for the small businesses in your area – it doesn’t have to be formal; just a list of their shop names might do a lot to bring traffic to their stores tomorrow!
As a community of Makers, we’re stronger when we work together. What can YOU do for that community this weekend?
photo credit: Peter Blanchard via photopin cc