285: Unexpected Ways to Support Small Businesses: Fan Favorite Replay

Hi there. You’re listening to the Leading Lady podcast. I’m your host, AliceAnne Loftus, and I’m a certified professional coach specializing in leadership and work-life balance. I work with clients to shift their limiting beliefs, insecurities, and self-doubt. This podcast will be filled with tools and strategies to help high-achieving women like you feel connected, empowered, and in the lead of your life, both personally and professionally. Let’s transform your life starting now. Lead yourself, the rest will follow.

Hi there, leading ladies. For today’s episode, I want to talk to you about how to support small business.

So as you know, I run an online community through Facebook called the Leading Ladies with AliceAnne Loftus. We have over 5,400 members, and it is just filled with incredible women who are out there building their empire, supporting their communities, and growing their businesses.

I always love the first of the month. The first of the month is the day where everyone in the group can promote their business and their organization. And I get to learn so much about what all the women are doing in their businesses and their organizations and how they’re showing up in the world. I always spend the second of the month just reading through all of the posts and really looking at what these women are doing, and the incredible, powerful, amazing organizations that are out there and that are led by women.

You Can’t Always Shop Local, But You Can Still Support

So like I said, for today’s episode, I want to talk to you about how you can support small business owners. It’s really simple. We talk all the time about “shop local, support small business.” And you might be thinking, “Well, I can’t do all of my shopping and all of my holiday gift buying from local businesses. Sometimes I need to order something from Amazon or I need to go to a big box store.” But there are so many things that you can do to support small business, and so I want to talk to you about them.

Follow, Like, and Comment on Social Media

The first thing you can do is follow them on social media. We have had such an amazing opportunity to really connect with each other online, and social media is so important. It’s more important now than ever, especially during this COVID time, because many stores have limited hours or they can’t take as many patrons at the same time.

Following them on social media is such an important way to really help them with their exposure, to build their audience, and to just keep a pulse on what’s going on. You’re able to really see what those businesses are doing and the fun and creative ways that they’re showing up on social media.

But to take it one step further, make sure you like and comment on their posts. Because of the algorithms with social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, they (they being Facebook and Instagram) really love engagement. And so when posts have a lot of engagement, those posts begin to show up in others’ newsfeeds.

So make sure you like and comment on their posts. I know it’s super fun to just give a thumbs up. But if you can give a reaction or just a quick emoji or a GIF, or “JIF,” I never know how to pronounce that. So if someone wants to correct me, I’d really appreciate that. But like and comment on their posts to increase engagement and exposure.

Share, Tag, and Pin

And don’t be afraid to share or repost their posts. Oftentimes you’ll see on my Instagram that if I’m following a small business and they post something that I just totally love, I will share it to my stories, or I will send it to other people that I think will really love it. On Instagram, there’s this tiny little icon that looks like a paper airplane. You can share that in your stories, you can share it as a post, or you can send it to people that you think might be interested. And I think that’s just a great way to connect people who might not know about that small business to their social media accounts.

Another thing that you could do is specifically tag a friend on posts that you think they would really like. I am notorious for this. I think it drives my friends crazy. I’m constantly tagging them in posts, like, “We need this Golden Girls puzzle. We need this flocking fabulous bracelet created by this local jewelry designer.” Tagging a friend on the post gives that small business exposure to someone who maybe hasn’t seen them, but then you’re also connecting your friend’s audience and their followers to it as well.

And don’t forget to follow small businesses on Pinterest, or to pin their images on Pinterest. Pinterest boards are a great way to collect maybe your shopping list or your ideas board. I’m constantly pinning websites and things that I really like and see online, and creating these files for myself so that I can go back to them when it’s time to shop.

You can also share small businesses’ websites. You don’t have to just do this through social media. My daughter put together this very detailed holiday list. It was actually quite helpful. We ended up sending it to my mom and both my sisters-in-law, and she had links to their websites and everything like that. That was super helpful in letting us know very specifically where to shop.

Now, if you’re not someone who gives very specific holiday gift guides, the websites can be helpful in maybe a newsletter or a blog or something that you’re sharing, where you want to tell your audience or your friends and family or your network about these other small businesses and how they can learn more about them.

Leave a Positive Review

Now, the next thing I think is incredibly important, and that is to leave a review. Something that I have learned in my interactions with my teenagers, and even with my midshipmen, our students at the Naval Academy, is that they are really a generation that reads reviews. And what it has taught me is how important it is for a business owner to have good reviews of their business.

I think that my generation is kind of guilty of only leaving reviews when something doesn’t go well, when we’re upset about something. But what I’m learning from the trends of reviews now is that it’s really, really, really important to leave positive reviews, especially for those small businesses that you love, because it increases their ratings, it gives them more visibility, and it allows them to really gain that credibility.

So if you have a small business that you love, if you received wonderful services or customer service, or you love their products, take a few minutes to just log on to either their social media or their Google or their Yelp postings and leave them a stellar review.

Share Their Events

Share what’s going on. There’s a local pop-up shop, and El Lunay was a guest on the podcast a long time ago. A few weeks ago, maybe a couple months ago? Gosh, I don’t know. 2020 has made my brain mush. But she’s constantly having events and sharing what’s going on and highlighting artists. And I try and share any of those events that she has going on onto my feed or in my group.

It’s super fun to see the connections that are made, and then how other people are like, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t even know that that was happening. How cool is that? What a great concept.” So when you see a small business that’s hosting some sort of event, or has a special sale, or has something going on, just like you would share their posts, take that extra effort to really go out there and share their events as well.

Don’t Ask for Discounts

This is a hot button for me. Don’t ask small businesses for discounts. Don’t ask your friends that run small businesses for discounts. If your girlfriend sells $12 lipstick, pay $12. If she is selling $30 pillows in her boutique, pay the $30. Do not ask your friends and the small businesses in your community for discounts. They have such a small profit margin to begin with.

It just does not feel good to a small business owner to hear that. And so if you catch yourself asking for a discount, or asking them if they can take the ticket price down or give you a lower price, that’s a big faux pas. Don’t do it. It really does not feel good.

Make Your Purchases at Small Businesses

And then, bottom line, make purchases from their shop. Find out if you can order online, if they ship to other places, if they have delivery options, or if they have gift cards that you could give to other people, if you aren’t exactly sure what people would like to receive from that store. But make your purchases at small businesses.

If you have an opportunity to browse through your small businesses or look for them, get involved in your online communities. I think every community has a Facebook group. Find out what the local shops are, what the local hotspots are, and what people love. If you have a favorite coffee shop, instead of grabbing store-bought gourmet coffee or whatever, go to your local coffee shop and see what gifts they have and what holiday specials they are offering.

It’s really important that you are mindful of where you’re shopping, who you’re supporting, and where the money is going back into. Small businesses are the backbone of our community. It’s what keeps our communities running. Small businesses are often who give back to our schools and our nonprofit programs. They are really what keeps our communities alive and functioning.

Simple, Free Ways to Show Support

So that’s my little soapbox of how to get out there and support your small businesses. Many of those ways I talked about, liking them on social media, liking and commenting, sharing their posts, are all free things that you can do to show support and encouragement and to get those small businesses out in front of your network, your community, your followers, and your audience.

This is not my usual podcast, but I know everyone’s out there looking for ways to support small business, and you’re also doing a lot of your holiday shopping. So I just thought I would drop this little bit of information, these very simple tips on how you can truly live and lead by supporting others.

Thanks so much. And until next time, ladies, take the lead.

Thanks for tuning in for another episode of the Leading Lady podcast. You can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at www.leadinglady-coaching.com. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe to the show so you don’t miss any future episodes. While you’re there, it would mean the world to me if you would take a few seconds and leave me an honest review. This will allow me to be able to help other high-achieving women find inspiration, connection, and develop strategies to live and lead with purpose and intention. See you here next week.