Buy local or bye, local!
I saw a post on Instagram last week using those words, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
We’re already starting to see the impact on small business of COVID-19. Treasured Minneapolis restaurants — even ones that maybe we assumed could weather the storm — are closing left and right, and we’re only a few weeks into the Shelter in Place Executive Order. The order has already been extended, and I’m guessing it will last through the summer or possibly even longer. Even if it was lifted tomorrow, we’re not going back to business as usual any time soon.
For most small business owners (myself included), that means our main source of revenue was completely shut off or drastically reduced overnight. I fully support the orders and believe they’re necessary to slow the spread of the virus. But the feeling of dread I get when I wonder how many businesses will not survive is overwhelming. The simple fact is that we are going to lose much of what makes the Twin Cities a great place to live. We have an abundance of independent artists, musicians and makers, plus independently-owned music and event venues, catering companies, coffee shops, restaurants, salons, and more.
So, what does it mean to be a small business and why is that important? For me, it means I’m in control of my career, my working hours, my family’s schedule, my financial security and that I have a chance to build generational wealth. It means I can choose to run my business in a way that aligns with my values and supports my employees with a living wage, and a safety net of paid sick time, vacation time, and paid maternity/paternity leave. It allows me to support more than 1,200 other small business owners and give them opportunities to grow their businesses by selling at our 120+ markets each year. It means I can support our local breweries, distilleries, farmers markets, event venues and festivals by bringing our events to their location. It means I can choose to contract with other small business owners for services like bookkeeping, graphic design, photography, printing and marketing. I’m not a maths whiz, but I know that the economic impact of one small business can be immense. And when you take just one business out of that eco-system, the ripple-effect can be catastrophic.
We’re all out here hustling and adapting, trying to furiously pivot an entire business model in a matter of weeks, when it took years to build and just days to dismantle. Some will be able to make that transition, others will not, and the loss is greater than just the economic impact, it will be a cultural loss. Small businesses make our cities great, and we need to help them thrive.
If you’re in a position to financially support a local business, do that by ordering from them or buying gift cards. Did you know that on average, two-thirds of every dollar ($0.67) spent at small businesses in the U.S. stays in the local community? Further, every dollar spent at small businesses creates an additional 50 cents in local business activity as a result of employee spending and businesses purchasing local goods and services*.
There are also a number of ways to support small businesses that don’t cost a thing:
Share their posts on social media
Write them a glowing review on Google, Facebook or Yelp
Refer a friend to them who you think would like their products or services
If you have an existing booking with a small business or service provider, reschedule instead of cancelling it, if possible
As we’ve been thinking about our own future with in-person markets on hold, we’ve had to reprioritize our focus and move up a project that we planned to spend the rest of 2020 developing. Introducing our NEW Digital Marketplace!
Our digital marketplace allows our vendors to host their own "store" within our website (think Etsy). Just like a regular storefront or market booth, they are in full control of their own product listings, policies, and fulfilling your orders. We handle all of the gritty stuff like payment processing, promotion, and infrastructure that can be a burden for small businesses to manage by themselves. Our digital marketplace only features our approved Minneapolis Craft Market traders, so you know that anything you buy from us is handmade by a great, local small business.
By hosting a digital marketplace, we can bring together dozens of our makers, offer a wide variety of products for you to choose from, and offer a simple checkout process where you can order from multiple vendors in one easy transaction. Plus, we now offer gift cards! *happy dance*
This is the best way for us to contribute a solution to the problems faced by our vendors right now. We hope you’ll shop our new marketplace and share it with your networks (mplscraftmarket.com). Online sales will be crucial over the coming months for our vendors as they try to navigate the COVID-19 restrictions. We hope that by providing an easy way for you to buy local, we won’t have to say bye, local.
*Source: Small Business Economic Impact Study from American Express