I am a strong believer in supporting your economy and local businesses. As a a=small business owner myself, I recognize the importance of having the support from my community in order to continue to move forward.
I’ve had quite a few local clients that needed help with their social media and they chose me in order to help support local economy and that is a powerful thing.
Why? Well, it is good for the environment because local businesses often have a smaller carbon footprint, they are owned and operated by your neighbors, and they are much more accountable.
So let's get into some ways you can start supporting your local economy.
HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ECONOMY
Shop local grocers.
A great way to support the economy is start buying your groceries from locally owned grocery stores. In my experience, the food is fresher anyhow. Don’t know how to find your local grocer? If you go to https://localgrocers.com/ and type in your postal code you will be able to find locally owned farms and markets near you that you can support in your neighborhood! Get to know the people you buy from by name!
Attend local concerts and events
Community event pages on our county websites often show what is happening for the community. Oftentimes this is a great way to support your local economy AND make some neighborhood connections. One of the best things to me about making an effort to support the local economy is you end up making great connections as well.
Shop small businesses
I live in Atlanta and one of my favorite things about this area is there is no shortlist of small businesses to support. There are lots of clothing stores and tech companies. One of the most interesting local businesses I have come across was Criterion Technology. This company creates sustainable clear component parts molded out of polycarbonate, acrylic, and other sustainabel metals. They create software that protects cameras and sensors that you have to keep them quality.
The reason that I love Criterion so much is not just because of it being local, but it is one of those companies that is local and cares about it’s customer services and quality that shows that local business spirit. Criterion’s injected molded optics also offer protection for 4k camera technology which if you are a creative like me who records YouTube Videos on a 4K quality camera also comes in handy.
Another key way of finding local businesses is to go to zoominfo.com and see if you can see what businesses are near you that you can support.
Hire locally
Another way is similar to supporting local businesses is hiring people within your community for your own business. I know it is popular right now to hire virtual workers, and you can stick to that, but why not make sure you’re giving those coins to those in your community? There’s a greater foundation of both trust and accountability.
Subscribe to the local papers
This is simple, inexpensive, and a great way to support the local economy. I recently looked into finding out if there was a paper route in my community to support a local paperboy and to see about reading the news within my community. You can see the local and national events in one paper. Nobody buys papers anymore so I hear, but I would love to try my best to keep those newspaper companies going.
Support local charitable initiatives
I love volunteering and giving back to the community. Sometimes we look at huge well-funded charities and forget there are some smaller ones that are equally important in our communities to help others. Look into finding out more about those and supporting those.
Do your banking at a credit union
I find local and smaller banks a lot more personal and accountable than the big banks. Something about the local banks makes you feel like you are being personally accounted for and so aside from it supporting your local community, it is also a personal preference anyhow because those big banks are usually more after themselves.
So, all of these are good ways to support local economy. Most of which are things you’d have to do anyway, so why not do it with your local community instead?
What are some ways you support your local economy? Drop it down below!