Last weekend we saw #shopindependentday - a special day for sellers and buyers, all about the originality, innovation and craftsmanship at the heart of small businesses across the UK. But it doesn't just stop there... this is a whole movement that you are also part of!
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It's actually the Summer of Small Business Love - an entire season dedicated to shopping small. The campaign was started by Holly Tucker, joint founder of Not On The High Street, who now runs Holly&Co, a site for small, creative British businesses up and down the country. Holly says, "We want to encourage the nation to show heart by shopping small, asking everyone to think how they could change their usual spending behaviour to support our independents"
When you consider that 99.9% of UK companies are small businesses who contribute massively to the local economy, it seems strange that those independent tiny businesses need your help. But they do. We do, I do - because I'm one of them too! Especially now. As Holly stated, "Some of the most colourful and creative businesses out there are independently owned, yet these same businesses have been hit the hardest in recent years. If we don’t support them at this crucial time, we are at risk of losing them altogether. So we need to act now, working collectively to ensure this doesn’t happen."
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The world needs small businesses because they're the ones that bring about creativity, originality, imagination - they're actually the driving force behind the big businesses. Because behind every great big company, there has to be a great micro business!
Tiny businesses like mine don't have marketing budgets like large organisations, but what we do have is creativity and a hell of a lot of drive - which is why we're joining together to show the world just how much you need us! Shopping small is for life, not just for a pandemic. Shopping local truly helps your local economy. Shopping independent means you're keeping alive all that creativity and originality - and directly supporting a real life actual person (not a load of fat bankers and investors)!
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So this summer I have just one ask of you: vote with your money, spend your money wisely, help the economy, support the independents - and at the same time you'll be discovering a whole world of originality and gorgeousness, and receive the most fabulous service to boot (because no one loves their customers quite as much as a small business)! Look out for the #CampaignShopIndependent across social media.
Sarah x
