How to: Supporting Small Businesses (when your paycheck can't)
I startled a few of you a few weeks ago when I posted about how I tried Temu for the first time.
"But Britt; don't you support small businesses?"
"I was just shocked, considering how much you promote shopping small,"
"Don't you know the reason they are so cheap?! Your money isn't going to America at all!!"
And so on and so on.
But here is the honest truth: My paycheck doesn't support my desire to shop small all the time.
I am not afraid to admit that because I know I am not the only one. While I would love to always buy my clothing from small boutiques and only eat out at Mom'n'Pop owned restaurants, I can't afford a $12 hair clip when I know they are $3 on Amazon, or that $45 shirt from a small business shop over a $12 one from TJMaxx.
It's the nature of today's economic crisis: shopping small is a luxury.
I love to shop small, and promoting and supporting small businesses is in my blood. However, purchasing from small businesses isn't always in my wallet. I see so many of you struggle with the same thing - many of you found this to be the reason you created your small business in the first place --> You needed the money. I see posts in Facebook groups asking hard questions like, "How is everyone paying your bills right now?" and, "How do you afford groceries for a family of five?". I couldn't imagine struggling to put food on the table or keep the roof over my small family's head, but we aren't living in luxury either. We budget, we save for fancy vacations and we turn down opportunities for fun if it costs too much. We prioritize the money spending we do have and utilize deals, coupons, and shopping around to find the best price whenever possible.
The other issue I have found in supporting small businesses, is feeling like I always have to shop, even when I don't need anything. Every time I see a launch post, a story telling me to save the countdown and get reminders, or when I get another email telling me that I have points I can redeem if I spend $75 today only, I feel compelled to look. This cycle can be challenging - saying no when I don't need things while also feeling like I need to support friends can be tricky.
Now, you aren't reading this article to learn my personal finance sob-story. You are here because you want to continue to support small businesses and your friend's shops, but you can't afford to. Thankfully, there are tons of ways to support small businesses without spending much (or anything at all).
How to support small businesses:
Buy from small businesses:
Obviously, the first thing you could do is purchase from small businesses. It doesn't have to be extravagant purchases. You could buy only a select few items or small items from a small business, saving bigger spending moments for cheaper stores or big box stores. Many small businesses have unique pieces that bigger box stores do not have anyway.
Support their digital marketing efforts:
There are many ways you can show your support for small businesses online, from the comfort of your own bed even. Here are a few of my favorites and how they work for you.:
You can save their posts when they post something that you like, want as a gift later on, or have something profound to say that you want to revisit.
You can share their posts when their caption is something others should read to gain meaning or feel understood. You could also share a post of a product if you want to give someone gift ideas for you or think they would want to get it.
You can comment or like a post. Honestly, the algorithm prefers commenting, and it boosts future engagement too because people will see comments and read them or feel comfortable to also comment, so if you're indecisive then comment - but liking posts is nice too.
You can watch their stories and engage when they post polls, questions, or quizzes. Usually, there's a method to their madness on stories: perhaps they are asking because they want to start preparing their next product launch or they want your help deciding their next offer. They may just be lonely and having a quiet day with no sales, and your engagement could be a bright moment for them. No matter the reason, when people engage or watch stories, it tells the algorithm that their story was good enough to watch and should be seen by more. That's when the algorithm will promote their story to more and more followers. Your engagement could be the difference between 40 views and 200. Seriously. All you had to do was answer their poll and watch their dog pictures.
Sign up for their email list:
Here's a great way to stay off social media and still strongly support small businesses: subscribe for their email lists. However, don't be tricked into going into debt when you get emails for sales or launches and feel compelled to purchase every time. Rememer: this is how to support businesses without spending all of your money. Instead, here are a few things you can do once on their email list that seriously help their sales and reach. Plus, if social media ever collapses, you can still gain access to their information and updates.
Open the emails
It seems almost obvious, but how many times have you gone to your email app on your phone, watch all the emails upload and pop up, and click "Edit" "Select almost all the unopened emails" and "move to trash". Without opening them. We don't have time to read 121 emails a day (the average number of emails people get a day, according to Venngage). However, there is a setting in your emails that you can set so that your email automatically opens it for you and trashes it for you too. All without you even knowing about the email.
So if you don't want the temptation but want to support, you can set up your settings. If you want to know more about this setting, I strongly suggest you connect with Chelsey N. @chelseyncoaching because she is the queen of email organization.
The truth of the matter is that by opening the emails, you're telling your email provider that these emails can be trusted and shouldn't go to spam. If too many people with the same email provider trash the email without opening it, that email provider can give that email sender a bad reputation rating, which will increase the chances the email provider puts those emails in the spam folders of other subscribers.
Click on the links in their emails:
When you feel confident that you won't be tempted to purchase by looking at their emails, I highly suggest you take the few seconds it takes to click on their links in their emails. This again tells the providers that you find their emails worthy, less going to spam, while also helping them by learning what call to actions people want to look at, what you find interesting, and helps them gather data on how to improve. All in all, it's helpful - so do it if you can.
Forward their emails:
When you really like the content of their email, or know someone who may enjoy their shop, make sure you send the email out to others. Usually there's a button to subscribe if you aren't already, so they can subscribe and it spreads the love. Plus, you have become one of their 121 emails for the day - congrats!
Check out their website:
Another great way of supporting them in their small business endeavors is to check out their website and look around. This can be super fun - maybe you'll learn something about them or their shop that you didn't know before. It helps Google understand the website's importance, helps them learn what pages are in need of some work, and helps them understand their shoppers better. Just by you poking around.
Share their website on your social media:
A super easy thing to do? Post the following (yup - I give you permission to copy/paste the following to your Facebook):
"Check out one of my favorite shops lately!
I love ______ (fill it in with what you love) about ______ (name of the shop).
(Paste the link to their website here)"
This allows your friends and family to know why you love the shop, what you love about them, and gives them the chance to look at their website and help the shop get noticed by potential shoppers. It's free marketing for the shop too.
Supporting small businesses doesn't have to be the end-all-be-all for your shopping habits:
Ultimately, whatever you choose to do to support small businessess is going to be awesome. Please know that you can shop small AND big: it doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can support small businesses or that hole-in-the-wall coffee shop, and also go to Target, or Walmart, or shop on Temu if you really need a $5 baby outfit because you cannot afford the $35 bamboo at that cute baby boutique. Trust me - I get it.
I hope this helps you feel a little less guilty when you can't shop every new launch or when you are living paycheck to paycheck and stressing about putting food on the table. Ultimately, putting clothing on your children's backs and food in your belly is far more important than if you shopped that small boutique this month. I promise you.
Love,
Britt
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