Why you should support small, local businesses

You're supporting someone's dream

Being creative can be a curse. You live for your art and pursuing anything else is quite frankly, soul-destroying.

But for many of us, putting yourself out there can be a little anxiety-inducing. Just because we put all our heart and soul into what we do doesn’t mean we are under any illusion that everyone will love our work.

The ‘minute’ I launched an Insight Timer meditation I got a 1-star review. You have to listen to the whole thing to rate it, which makes me wonder what kind of sociopath listens to an entire meditation they despise?! It wasn’t perfect, given I recorded it in my bedroom, in a lockdown with kids interrupting and it was my first time learning how to edit audio off YouTube tutorials. (Don’t worry, I removed all the little voices interrupting with ‘Mummy, what are you doing?’)

But, I had great feedback on it from others, so this rating felt malicious. I can’t imagine who dislikes me so much that they jump at the chance to slam something I produce to help a child’s well-being in the midst of an anxiety epidemic. However, reality check: that’s the risk you take when you put yourself out there.

As a creative, your product feels like an extension of you, it’s your ‘baby’ - if you will - and we brace ourselves for the fact it may get slammed by someone who doesn’t like you - or your baby. Plus, other people see The.Worst.Possible rating and assume it’s crap. That can be really damaging to our business.

That’s not the only battle we creative business owners face. It’s hard to put into words the overwhelm and at times debilitating paralysis that comes with being a creative trying to start a business on a shoestring budget. In my case, all the technical stuff required, like accounting, website building, SEO, online sales management and shipping logistics never get easier. As someone who suffers from dyscalculia, I can barely dial a phone number correctly, let alone cope with an Excel spreadsheet. I lost four days of my life trying to sort local shipping labels because my brain simply doesn’t work that way.

On that note, when you baulk at the shipping cost from a small business, please remember, we aren’t ripping you off. We might not even be making a living yet! We are not a company whose multi-million dollar profits allow us the luxury of free shipping. There is NO such thing as free shipping. We’d love to offer you that. We can’t. In fact, we only charge you for the packaging and the courier fees, not our time… because we know we’d never make a sale if we added a handling fee too. What ‘shipping’ often looks like for a small business owner is someone sitting at their kitchen table, faffing with spreadsheets, tripping over boxes of packaging in the hallway or garage, packing boxes on the floor with an aching back and trying to figure out how to ‘be there for the courier pick up’ when they also have to drop kids at school and go to the supermarket.

So, as a creative, sole trader and start-up business owner, here’s what I want you to know.

⭐We clap our hands in joy when you give us a positive review. Sometimes we might even cry a little. (Just me? Surely not!) That two minutes you took to write a review is a veritable soothing balm to someone who has spent years creating something we think you’ll like.

⭐We don’t create for ourselves, we create for others. If you’re going to criticise our work, please be constructive. We creatives love to do better and God knows, we will do our damndest to rise to the challenge, so we take your advice on board.

⭐We creatives absolutely do a happy dance, or a fist pump, or a ‘YUSS’ loud enough to scare the neighbours, or any other over-excited display of happiness when you buy something - because that little bit of support makes it All. Worth. It. You make our dream a reality.

Feel free to promote some of your talented creative friends and small business owners in the comments below, or take some time to do it on your own social media page. Think consciously about what you buy and who you buy from this Christmas and all year round. In doing so, you help to spread happy dances up and down the country. After the challenges of this pandemic, this silly season is an opportunity for us all to support small, local businesses and individuals that work all hours of the day and night to bring something unique to life. I think I speak for all small business owners and creatives when I say it takes serious courage to keep rising to these challenges day after day. And that is worth celebrating with a little support.