Being a business owner, you must understand who your competitors are. Conducting competitor analysis and highlighting their strategies will help you understand the market trends.
However, it is also essential to support small businesses in your community. With the economic climate affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become crucial to understand how to support small businesses. Although the pandemic happened more than two years ago, we are still transitioning the standard operating procedures back to normal. By supporting small businesses, you can allow people to keep their jobs and maintain a stable source of income.
Unfortunately, business startup founders and entrepreneurs are directly affected by the pandemic due to the restrictions imposed by government authorities. According to the US Chamber of Commerce stats, around 70% of small businesses are impacted due to financial hardships. In this category, around 58% of small businesses are not dismissing the chance of putting the shutter down permanently.
Why Support Small Businesses
1) Positive Impact on the Local Economy
Evolving companies take advantage of the business eco-systems, which support small businesses initially. Entrepreneurship inspires and helps further entrepreneurship. For example, online curators amplify even more small brands to bring their products to the target audience.
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When you buy local products, your investment is linked with the community and helps local development. For example, a restaurant buys ingredients from local producers, uses a local insurance broker, hires a local design firm, and establishes strong relationships to help the entire business community.
2) Support Communities and Job Creation
Supporting small businesses will allow you to contribute to the heart of the local community. You can establish a hub of activity where local authorities and entrepreneurs work collectively and preserve the character of their neighborhood. This approach increases the town's appeal and attracts tourism dollars to the community. Moreover, this approach impacts the nearby hotels and attractive spots.
When you support small businesses, you can also create job opportunities. In addition, a decent number of small businesses in a community can learn on-the-job business skills, which can inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Benefits of Supporting Small Businesses
- It benefits the community by producing more products and services available for the recipients.
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- It helps to stabilize the business and promote job opportunities for various community members.
- It motivates people to start a business.
- It helps you to grow a professional network and increase your productivity.
- When you support small businesses in difficult times, they will return the favor by building stable income streams for you.
How to Support Small Businesses
1) Send a Message That They Aren’t Alone
When you support small businesses, you should start by sending them a message of support. Then, you can reassure them that they are not the only ones struggling to sustain their business. If you are an experienced entrepreneur, you would be in a better position to understand all the difficulties and hardships faced by entrepreneurs and new business owners.
Sending a supporting message is one of the best ways to support small businesses because it brings them comfort. The struggling business owners would feel that they are not the only ones in a mess. All successful entrepreneurs go through difficult paths before formulating their strategies. When you go to their office and feel they are losing their motivation, the best thing to do is give them some words of encouragement.
2) Start Small While Purchasing a Product for the First Time
Supporting local businesses can play a huge role in defining your local economy. If you are a business owner and want to help other entrepreneurs in your community, you can start by making small purchases from them. Then, by buying products from their store, you can understand their terms and conditions and familiarize yourself with their procedures.
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Most importantly, you can buy the same product from another business, just in case your experience with a small business isn't memorable. At least, you can assure yourself that you did your part in supporting small businesses and local entrepreneurs in your community.
3) Hire Small Businesses as Your Consultants
An alternative for supporting small businesses is hiring them as your vendors. As long as you are careful with your selection, you can hire effective specialists and consultants to build quality business strategies. There is a chance that you will find consultants that are experts in your field. They may have years of experience working as consultants for other organizations, but they have yet to gain any success with their businesses.
Consultants can support small businesses by providing quality service with great value. They may even give you discounted prices as you are one of their first few clients. This approach can benefit both parties as they can make a substantial income from it. You will get the consultancy required by your business while getting the first client, which will help them build their service portfolio.
4) Collaborate on Business Initiatives
Entrepreneurs and companies must support small businesses by collaborating on business initiatives. For example, if you have a boutique close to your location, you can host a drop-off point for them to unload or load their stock.
Similarly, if you find a local juice supplier, you can give them communication facilities so they can share the rent with you. The more you collaborate with small businesses as part of your community, the more technicalities and tricks you will learn.
Some people would argue that you won't get much revenue by being part of such initiatives, but you can support small businesses in a way that benefits both parties.
5) Join Entrepreneur Groups
In today's digital age, there are many opportunities for business people and entrepreneurs to organize in-person meetings and gatherings. You can build a professional online community and encourage individuals to join your network. Through this approach, you can support small businesses because they can learn from the experience of successful entrepreneurs. Moreover, they will get a chance to interact with entrepreneurs undergoing the same situation as them.
This approach is highly beneficial because it doesn't just allow individuals to meet quality clients but also gives them a chance to expand their network. In addition, you may learn about strategic partnerships when you go through these online communities.
One way to create a local community is by using social media. For example, you can create a Facebook group and invite friends and colleagues. Promoting your Facebook group won't be long before many people become part of it.
6) Use Social Media
Talking about ways to support small businesses is not just about buying products from them. You can also promote their business products on different social media platforms. For example, you can include a business product as part of your Instagram story and give the small business a shoutout. You can also share their social media posts as part of your marketing efforts. However, do not overdo it because it may make the audience feel you are doing it because you are paid for it.
Strikingly Website Features to Support Small Businesses
Strikingly is a professional website builder with several features to run your eCommerce business efficiently. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, people have converted their physical stores into online stores, and Strikingly has played a huge role. Due to the eye-catching features in our website development process, people shop online rather than going to physical stores. Here are some of the exquisite features that we provide for supporting small businesses:
In-store pickup and delivery: This approach is a helpful way to help customers and support small businesses. You can take your small business to the next level if you provide flexible options for how your customers can receive products from your online store. Strikingly provides its users with exciting shipping features to ensure flexible options.
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- Cashless payment: Cash on delivery (COD) or payment through credit is a fantastic website feature to support small businesses. This approach will ensure that you are not one-dimensional with your customers and provide them with multiple options on how they can purchase online.
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- Create a coupon or discount code: This is one of the best approaches to promote products online. Users can create a discount code for their customers on their Strikingly website, which can be used either to shop online or visit the local store.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many businesses are impacted financially, we can keep them afloat by showing support. An act of kindness can go a long way in supporting local businesses. You can build a website to implement your plans by relying on Strikingly. In addition, you can help small business owners by creating a supportive community online. All you need to do is to land on our homepage and complete the registration process.
Conclusion
Beyond their size, small businesses are known for their determination and spirit. Their ambitious and resilient founders have a huge role in stabilizing these businesses. Despite the uncertainty, they develop innovative things because this drives them.
Strikingly has always been the front-runner in supporting small businesses worldwide. Our website-building platform is built by keeping the struggles of small businesses in mind. Registering on our platform allows you to create a fully-fledged and professional website without hiring a website developer.
As we move towards the digital world, we are expected to see more and more users support small businesses and prosper in their initiatives. If you want to be part of our online community, take the first step and build a successful website with us.
The development phase won't take much time, and your promotional strategies will bear fruit eventually.
