UNITY — Whether I have been here for 30 years or two years, I am part of your community.
I am supporting and raising my family in the same community you are. You can find me coaching your kid’s sports team or volunteering for a community event or just helping out at a community work project.
My livelihood is based on support from my customers. I work hard to keep my customers happy and have the product they are needing in my location; even if it means some after hours calls when I just sat down to the supper table after a long day of work, or just coming home from my kid’s sports event. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind at all, because that is why I chose to get in business and the main part of my business is to look after my customers.
I love chatting with my customers about what’s new in their world, how their family is doing and the latest theory on our weather, or even those Riders. Our staff makes sure to decorate our store front or store for Christmas, sometimes Halloween or in support of a local event that is coming up in the community. We want to support our town and what’s going on in it as much as we want our residents to support us.
I am the place that will stay open after quitting time because we always want to get you looked after. When I’m at the rink with my kids, and a visitor at the rink needs a tire fixed to return home or a new stick to replace the one that is broken, I often will run down to my shop and get them looked after.
I answer the phone from home or in my leisure time because you are calling with a question or for help. And I do it because that’s the kind of help a small-town business provides.
I open my counter to your group’s ticket sales, or my parking lot to a fundraising barbecue or even my lobby for a community bake sale or campaign to help raise awareness. I do this because if these things are important to you then they are also important to me and my business.
I don’t mind recommending another business in town that carries something I either don’t have at the moment or I may not carry at all. We know that the same favour is often extended our way down the road.
With my small-town business, I am saying my values are more likely to line up with local values and the things that matter in our community and not in some corporate boardroom far away.
Do you know what else I do? I hire people in our town – your kids, your neighbours and your family. It can be inspiring to give a student their first job and help train them in the work force and we are just as proud when they graduate as their family is; although we are sad to see them leave, we are happy to know that we have contributed to their growth.
When you have lots of little small businesses that are moderately prosperous, they make a big difference to your town. That’s because a small-town business will put twice as much of each dollar into your town that a big box business would. Do you know why? Because as your small-town business, I purchase more of my supplies and services locally as well as I give back to my community in a variety of ways such as employment, business support of local community events, activities and groups and other such manners in which we contribute to our town.
I am your small-town business and I am a part of your community.
