Support starts at home, and supporting small businesses helps the community thrive.

Supporting Local is Vital

As cliche as it sounds, where you spend your money matters.  We are all having to cut back on spending, so now more than ever, it's essential to be deliberate about where you spend your money. 

 According to Forbes, when you help by supporting local businesses, you're directly supporting your community.

The tax revenue made through sale taxes from local businesses support the local government. This is then used to reinvest in the community. However, big box retailers often receive tax breaks from local governments that don’t give local businesses such a luxury. By choosing to invest money into a large big box chain elsewhere, local communities won’t reap any of the benefits. - Forbes

Another reason it's critical to help local businesses thrive, according to Forbes, is that on average, they donate 250% more than large businesses to local nonprofits and causes that directly impact the local community.

It is Getting Harder to Keep Doors Open

Running a business is not easy, and it comes with a ton of invisible work, from tight margins to constant challenges.  Not to mention the fact that the economic pressures of today are making it harder for everyone right now. Many small businesses are struggling to stay afloat and doing everything they can to survive.

While the current economic pressure is making things hard for everyone, another factor is giving Evansville business owners grief as well, and that's all of the construction going on around the city.  While construction means progress and growth, and those are good things for the future, having your business next to a construction zone can cause a real headache.

Downtown Evansville Businesses Ask for Community Support

Arcademie is an arcade and bar in downtown Evansville. Arcademie recently took to Facebook to open up about current struggles that many local businesses are facing, and ask the community to consider buying local the next time you want to go out to eat or pick up a shirt somewhere.

The post reads:

Small Businesses in EVV need your help!

Right now, your faves, your regular haunts, and the place you’ve never been to, are facing increasing pressures. Economic uncertainty, rising costs, summer vacations, road construction and closures, the lure of a new chain restaurant/store - dealing with just one of these is difficult enough, but together they’re having a significant - and potentially permanent - impact on local businesses. Far too many small businesses are closing or considering it, and it’s all people behind the scenes are talking about.

Here’s what we’re asking you to do for your community, to help keep small biz doors open, and to ensure more independent doors open down the road.

First, come in! Have dinner, have a drink, order a coffee to go, buy a book, put a plant in your windowsill, buy an extra cookie, pick up a t-shirt, hey is that a donut? I’ll take it! Bring a friend along, increase the impact!

Then tell people about it! We all take the good for granted. The easiest thing you can do is leave a Google/Facebook review. Select the stars or spend a minute thinking about what brought you in/keeps bringing you back/what makes this biz stand out. Then like & follow their page if you don’t already! You can do this right now for a few of your faves. We posted a few this morning ourselves.

If you follow the local food review sites online and would like to see content beyond how the new chain restaurant blows but they’ll give it four more chances and whether KFC is killing it this week or not, raise the bar and write a review there, same approach as before!

Lastly visit a small business you’ve never been to. Be curious & explore! Follow the steps above & repeat! Then come by and tell us about it!

Businesses know you’re facing the same economic strains they are. Where you spend your money matters now more than ever. The fabric and future of your neighborhoods and neighbors depends on it. Small business folks in every role love what they do, where they do it, and who they do it for and they can’t do it without you!

On a Personal Note...