Make "Shop Local" a win-win habit

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is traditionally Small Business Saturday. American Express owns the registered trademark of the phrase, as well as "Shop Small," and they have teamed up with the SBA (Small Business Administration) and chambers of commerce across the country to heavily promote the concept since 2010. Last year, this resulted in almost $19.8 billion being spent at the nearly 32-million independent businesses nationwide. I'd like to encourage you to make most days a Shop Small day. Of course, you can't find everything you want or need at a small business and the convenience of Amazon or experience of shopping at a mall are hard to ignore, but purposefully prioritizing your purchases through local small businesses has a profound impact on your local and regional community. When you spend your dollars at a local small business, as opposed to a large corporate business, you build our local economy even more than you may realize. Yes, no matter where you shop, you still get the basic community benefits of local purchasing such as sales tax dollars that help fund public safety, parks and recreation, and more. But online purchases from out-of-region companies rarely contribute much to local jobs beyond a delivery person. Some don't contribute sales tax like they are supposed to and some don't collect the full local sales tax rates, which are often higher than state rates. No matter the size of the business, if you are shopping locally as opposed to buying from out-of-region businesses, you are also supporting local and regional jobs. Supporting local jobs helps provide revenue and benefits (healthcare, retirement, etc.) to our workers and those community members stay financially strong, so they can, in turn, put money back into our local economy. Money that goes back in our economy builds our economy from within. This includes a variety of taxes (sales, property, etc.) that provide police, fire, parks, libraries, recreation, utilities, road improvements, public events and more. These directly affect our quality of life. But when we make an effort to support a local small business, it not only supports local jobs, but gives the extra benefit of keeping profits local. When you buy from a corporate business, the profits go back to the corporate headquarters in whatever city and state that might be. But small local businesses often have a local, or at least regional, owner who invests the profits in their own local purchases, a house, vehicles, sponsoring a local charity or kids' sports team, expanding their business, etc. It compounds the benefits. Please be purposeful in buying from local small businesses, especially during this important recovery year. We still have many small businesses barely hanging on, and your support is a real win-win for you and your community. R. Scott Alvord, MBA-MCA, BSCS, is an award-winning, multi-business owner and CEO of Advanced Development Concepts, LLC. He can be reached at www.ADCBiz.com.