We keep hearing that supporting local businesses is important. But why? Supporting local businesses creates a thriving economy in your city, facilitates better jobs, builds a strong community, is better for the planet, gives your city more charm and character, provides you with a better customer experience, and feels good! You can learn more about the importance of supporting local here.

Chances are if you’re reading this, you probably already are convinced that you DO want to #SupportLocal. So check out these simple ways to support the local business that you know and love.

Shop Local Businesses

Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way: shop in your small, local businesses. Every time you choose to shop at a small, local business instead of heading to a big box store, you’re keeping your hard-earned money in the local economy and are sowing into your community.

If you’re not sure what local businesses are out there, head to the Locorum directory where you’ll find thousands of verified local businesses to search through.

Use Local Services

While we often think of supporting local when we go out to dinner or when it’s Christmas time and we have a bunch of gifts to buy, we don’t always think about supporting local when it comes to the services we use.

When you need to hire a company, such as a party planner, a mechanic, a chiropractor, or a financial planner, choose a small, local business. You’ll find unparalleled customer service, and you’ll be strengthening your community at the same time. You can find vetted and verified local businesses in your city here.  

Did you know that you can get rewarded for using local service providers? By “get rewarded” we mean you can get money just for choosing to support a local business. When you search for verified local service providers on our platform, you’ll see the dollar amount that you can get when you choose to work with them. You’ll also get to see reviews from real people to help you make your decision. Your rewards will get loaded onto a physical credit card that you can use at any local business!

No catch, no gimmicks, just rewards. Learn more about it here.

Follow Local Businesses

You can support local businesses without spending a penny! Follow them on their social media platforms. Following a business helps to expand their audience, helps others who have not discovered them learn about them, and strengthens their brand.

When you support local businesses that you enjoy, it can also help that business better understand who their audience is, which will help them succeed in the long run.

While you’re following them, don’t forget to engage with their content! Engaging with content is a key part of following them. Remember that algorithms want to encourage engagement, so commenting, liking, and sharing content will help those small businesses reach a wider audience!

Attend Community Events With Your Friends

Local businesses invest time and money attending local community events such as Ribfest, music festivals, markets, and more. Having a large turnout makes that investment worth it for them. It gives those businesses lots of exposure and allows them to connect with their community in a more face-to-face way.

Make sure to keep a pulse on community events and make plans to attend them with your friends. Not only will you have a good time, make some memories, and enjoy the festivities, but you’ll also be supporting all of the local businesses that are participating.

Write Reviews

Reviews are what can make or break a company. Did you know that 91% of people read reviews online regularly? Most people go to online reviews before making purchases or choosing businesses to work with. We used to say that word-of-mouth was the best way for a company to grow, but a study showed that 85% of people trust online reviews just as much as they trust personal recommendations. 

So if you want to really help a local business that you love, take your voice online and leave them a review. It only takes a minute or two to do and the impact is gigantic.

It also helps others with making future decisions for purchases and choosing which service provider to hire. You can find verified reviews for local service providers on Locorum.

Choose Pickup More Often

We live in a world where pretty much anything we want we can order online and have delivered to our door in a relatively quick timeframe. Especially over the past two years, we’re getting more and more used to selecting delivery because we don’t want to be bothered driving to pick something up.

Providing delivery often cuts into a local business’ profits. With a mammoth like Amazon providing cheap, free, quick, and even next-day delivery for pretty much anything you want, we have a skewed idea of reasonable delivery expectations. We want things to be delivered quickly and cheaply. Small businesses don’t have the resources that Amazon has, and they often have to offer things like “free delivery if you spend ##” to try and keep customers but also want to make it worth their time.

By choosing pickup options, you’re ensuring that the business makes a decent profit for your purchase.

Also, for restaurants, whenever possible, choose to order from the actual restaurant instead of Uber Eats or other food delivery services. Those services take a large cut of the money. By ordering straight from a restaurant, you’re making sure that all of the money goes straight to their bottom line.

Be Kind And Patient

Especially when many businesses have found themselves short staffed since the pandemic, be gracious and patient if things are slower than you’d like or there is a mix-up. Being a small business owner is no easy feat and many small businesses have found themselves struggling over the past couple of years. Being patient doesn’t cost you anything and makes a huge impact.

Kind words also go a long way to helping to provide support for the incredible entrepreneurs trying to keep their heads above water. Let them know that you enjoy their product or service. Let them know that you appreciate their business. Your kindness will make their day.

Tag Them On Social Media

When you’re posting a picture of that beautiful backyard, tag the landscaping company you hired to make it happen! If you’re eating a delicious cheesy pizza, enjoying drinks on a patio, sporting a cozy hoodie from a local clothing company, or just had your closets professionally organized, always remember to tag the businesses.

Not only does it help their social media presence, but it gives others an idea of the type of work that they do or the products that they offer. Plus, those entrepreneurs who have poured their heart and energy into creating their company will do a little happy dance when they see it. Truly. And creating joy in someone’s day is no small thing.