Tips to Support Small Businesses
If you follow my socials you know how much I love to support small businesses that were created from a special place of love and that are sustainable and friendly to our earth. Its times like these where many small businesses are struggling and need support to survive when they should be thriving. Please help me support them share the gold that they provide the world with, share the things you love, comment, post, have a discussion with a friend. If something makes you feel good share that, get in touch with the owners tell them how you feel and ask them questions.
Shop Small - ask questions - share how you feel
Here's a special list to inspire ideas around the conscious shopping experience and support small businesses all over the globe:
- Shop small to support your environment and communities – when you shop small you are often supporting a more environmentally friendly and conscious business – do your research.
- Reach out, if you want clarity on anything ask questions. We are here to help - small businesses are all about your experience, you get to talk to a real human with real feelings and a heart. We don’t operate as huge corporations shoving information down your throats and many of us don’t spend much (if anything) on marketing.
- If we have a glitch in systems or mistakes - we are human - many of us operate solo or only have a small team, if something isn’t clear especially postage costs ask questions. Postage may be different than what is listed, especially if you are wanting to bundle goods – sometimes the systems we use don’t support they way we would like to function (without us paying a lot to add an app on) and postage options can be difficult to navigate.
- Discover new brands that support our planet – if you get stuck, ask your favorite sustainable businesses they will be happy to share other businesses with you. You can also check their socials for who they support too.
-
Go with the option of a gift card – your giftee can get what they love and not have a collection of obligation items they keep in their homes. Remember they may also have a chance to get a unique and personalised gifting experience or product, or even be able to book a workshop with a small business. Gift cards go a long way!
- Share your favorite stores in your local groups, their stories and what you love about them – the impact of doing this is far greater than many of us can imagine it effects analytics and allows our reach to be SO much bigger than we can do ourselves, it helps us with our marketing and is almost as impactful as us paying for marketing – this is a big one than many don’t understand but it is so so helpful. Be sure to credit images you share too!
- Think about your purchases and make them feel good in your heart, this is 100% possible. If you don't feel good, find something that makes you feel good, there are many great options out there.
- Share your experience, review the products, leave the shop a review on their online store or socials, google etc, upload photos of the unpacking experience, the product, the product in use, the personalised notes, the details and love that comes with the product - this is all so important to us and consumers to see the love and it inspires makers to keep moving forwards and keep creating beautiful quality products that are loved and shared with the world.
- Remember to shop direct first, check if they have their own website before purchasing from the big retail giants, partners, third party markets, sites and stores as a large profit goes elsewhere - wholesalers are generally at 50% of the profit. If you can't shop direct and are shopping from a retailer choose to shop small here also . There are many great small business retailers sharing their hearts also.
Remember when you shop small you are often supporting more sustainable types of products that are created with love and that are deeply thought about with the environment in mind. Do your research around what draws you to the product, check out what the product is made of, where it comes from, what are the elements or ingredients used and who is involved in the process? Use your intuition and see if you can feel what type of energy goes into the creation process and the final product. And ask yourself does the business use single use plastics and are they educating customers to make better choices that support the environment?
There is a lot we can all be more conscious about when shopping, especially at this time of year when everything is screaming at us from all different angles. Remember to step back and take a look at your shopping list, who are you buying for, why and what is your idea first - before jumping into all the sales and signs and getting lost in over purchasing and undervaluing our environment. If you get stuck shop with your heart, that's where to start.
If I’m shopping online I like to support local and or small businesses, that are environmentally conscious and support our world in moving towards a ban on single use plastics and a generally more aware, awake and kind human nature. My tips on not over purchasing are I write a list for who I want to buy for and why, what my idea is, then I put things in my cart and re-evaluate before purchasing. If posting gifts to people to save on plastic packaging and postal money pits I usually buy from the same store for the same household, or if the business is local I reach out to them with what I want and see if I can pick it up or if they can bundle gifts together and postage costs. Its always better to ask questions to see if the business can reduce plastic waste, it makes us all think of how we can improve - if they offer free shipping it helps them too, win-win.
Happy Conscious Shopping people!
SHARE SHARE SHARE the love
Do you have a favorite conscious small business you love that deserves to be shared? Please drop their links in the comment box below
