In the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of time with the idea of support – specifically as it applies to small businesses. Repeatedly, I’ve seen comments and heard stories of small businesses in need of support from the communities that surround them. More purchases, more site visits, more likes, more shares, more encouragement, more celebration. In all cases, the owners I’ve heard from described the shocking void of support from those that, from the outside looking in, would be assumed to be their biggest backers.
I asked other entrepreneurs in our online communities “what is the biggest challenge your business faced when getting started?” and, once again, there were resounding repetitions of “no support.”
With our podcast in its earliest stages of launch, I spend most days feeling like we are jumping into the deep end of the pool. We’re screaming “CANNON BALL!” while throwing our bodies into the water and making the biggest splash we can manage. At the end of the day, if everyone just looks at you and rolls their eyes as you do this – it can feel embarassing. Alienating.
Believe me, it’s way more fun if a handful of friends see your madness, scream “CANNON BALL!” and throw their own selves into the water to spend the day with you. Suddenly, when others join in, there’s sense of community, enjoyment and purpose.
Maybe that’s a weak analogy, but I do think it reflects the discomfort of putting yourself out there as a business owner. You’re constantly challenged to put your ideas, creations and work on display. A small piece of you and your mind is out there for everyone else to judge and criticize. And honestly, good or bad, you hope they do. You hope someone says something in response to what you’re doing – because, otherwise, the silence is deafening.
Some business owners even call attention to society’s weird quirk of supporting massive corporations with brand loyalty, frequent purchases and overwhelming commitment. By comparison, those same committed shoppers completely fall down on consistently supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs. Many people find it convenient to haggle with small business owners about the value of their services – when, often, those are the people that need your consistent support most and can’t truly afford to take a cut on their rates.
From the inside looking out – it seems like the list of ways to support your local small business is ever-growing. Arguably, we’d say it’s so long and straight-forward that you could do literally anything associated with a small business that you know, and it would be helpful. It would be supportive.
General ways to support small businesses
While that might be true, it’s difficult for those that surround us to truly understand what impact they can have on your small business through their varying avenues for offering support. So, instead of generally saying “support small businesses” – let’s offer a range of specific ways in which our friends, families and communities can help support and grow locally owned businesses.
| What you can do | Impact to the business |
| Shop in-store | • Helps justify the costs of a brick-and-mortar location • Contributes sales tax back to the city, county and state • Allows you and the business to build a relationship |
| Shop online | • Enables highly efficient sales that can drive down costs and prices • Contributes sales tax back to the city, county and state • Provides the business with critical revenue even when your location, time to shop, etc do not align |
| Buy gift cards | • Commits funds to supporting and growing the business • Expands the customer base when gifted |
| Like and follow the business on social media | • Grows the business’ following • Increases likelihood of additional followers • Opts into business’ social media marketing • Allows you and the business to build a relationship |
| Share a social media post | • Expands the reach of the business’ social media marketing • Potentially expands web traffic and customer base • Leads to greater exposure, improved engagement and increased purchases |
| Tell a friend, family member or colleague about the business | • Expands the reach of the business • Leads to greater exposure and increased purchases |
| Post your own photo of the business or products | • Provides a unique way to tell the brand’s story that is relevant to you and your own connections • Leads to greater exposure, improved engagement and increased purchases |
| Write a positive review | • Tells why others should shop/support this business • Increases trust and interest in the business • Improves engagement and increases purchases |
| Ask about the business | • Shares details about the business growth, current deals and special news you might not otherwise hear • Allows you and the business to build a relationship |
| Tell the business owner when you’re proud of them | • Reinforces that the business is succeeding • Celebrates their hard work and what they’ve created |
| Ask about what you can do to help | • Brings some ‘all hands on deck’ relief to challenging projects or goals |
Alternative ways to support small businesses like ours
Not selling retail goods or offering services out of a brick-and-mortar shop? There are likely small tweaks to the list above, but generally, all of these details apply. For example, if you were to expand this list specifically for our podcast, we’d ask everyone to support us by…
What you can do | How it impacts the podcast |
| Listen to the trailer | • Increases the number of listens…which improves our ranking by podcast algorithms…which improves how often total strangers will see our show in their recommendations • Improves our web traffic and search rankings |
| Sign up for our newsletter | • Opts into marketing and updates so that we can share new episodes with you • Improves our subscriber counts so we can brag to potential guests about how big our show is |
| Like and follow our social accounts | • Improves our follower counts so we can brag to potential guests about how big our show is • Leads to greater exposure and improves engagement |
| Subscribe to our show on your favorite podcast platform | • Increases the number of subscribers…which improves our ranking by podcast algorithms…which improves how often total strangers will see our show in their recommendations • Improves our web traffic and search rankings |
| Write a positive review | • Increases number of listeners by telling others this show is worth their time |
| Recommend a brand to be interviewed | • Connects us with amazing brands around the world that are worthy of an interview and thousands of listens • Improves the likelihood we are able to feature the brand by making a personal introduction • Expands our reach |
| Invite us to be your guest | • Increases our reach through participation in your podcast, blog, event, etc |
It’s obviously a lot to ask for any one person to do all of these things on behalf of a business – but know that even one of these things can have a huge impact to a small business that relies on word of mouth and grassroots marketing to keep momentum. In fact, in lieu of doing all at once, we recommend that you pick one or two ways of helping each month and continue your engagement over time.
Take the ‘support small businesses’ challenge
Take a look at your personal network. Take a look at your neighborhood and the businesses that surround you. What are you doing to offer support? Are there areas where you could support more? Take on the challenge of supporting others around you by choosing 1-2 list items to participate in this month. Tell us in the comments who you’re supporting and why!
