National Mom & Pop Business Owners Day is March 29 and what better way to celebrate this than to show all your favorite local spots some love? Purchasing goods and services from your favorite businesses is a very concrete way of showing support and helping them keep their bills paid, but there are other ways that don’t require your dollars.
Tell your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers
Word-of-mouth advertising remains the gold standard, especially for small businesses. Are there mom & pops you frequent or otherwise adore? Tell everyone you know! Help spread the word of that business within your circle and help that company acquire some new potential customers.
Leave a Google review
Most businesses are first found via a Google search these days. If you have had a positive experience with a local business, share it on their Google listing! Your review could very well wind up being the nudge someone else needs to reach out and do business with that company. Positive, authentic reviews can really help legitimize a business online.
Alternatively, did you maybe not have the best experience with a company? Strongly consider giving them the benefit of the doubt and reach out to them. Many mom and pops are operated on shoe-string budgets and mistakes can happen. Give them the opportunity to make it right before you leave a negative rating. Chances are your experience wasn’t typical and they will greatly appreciate the chance to alter the outcome. If you reach out and they don’t budge or change your view, then perhaps a negative rating is warranted, but don’t jump to that conclusion first.
Engage on social media
Follow your favorite local businesses on at least one of their social media channels. Like their content and comment or share it if it resonates with you. Let them know you are listening and interested in what they are doing. A little love on social media can be really invigorating to a small business with a limited advertising budget.
Sharing posts on social media is like the digital version of word-of-mouth advertising. Consider one tiny tweak when you share a company’s post though: offer your perspective. Sharing a post without including your own caption (and thereby, no context or personal connection) makes it easy for your followers to simply keep scrolling without hardly looking at what you’ve shared. Adding just a sentence or two on to explain your why fosters a connection and makes it matter.
You have the power to lift up and validate your favorite local businesses. All it takes is a little time and mindful interaction. These actions can have a major impact on small companies who are all collectively experiencing a very uncertain time. Show them they matter!
