Small business spending has big local impact

We are a pretty powerful group here in the Mat-Su Borough, especially when we make up our minds to make a difference.

More businesses of all sizes are opening in the Valley each month. It’s been a pleasure to see more and more boutiques offering quality goods on a small scale.

In the past, many of us have driven to Anchorage in search of bargains and specific Christmas gifts. But as the population of the borough has increased, so too have the local shopping opportunities.

Small Business Saturday is coming up this weekend. It’s the cousin to well-known days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Small Business Saturday is about smart shopping. The focus of this day is on where we spend our money, not when. If you plan to do your shopping in the Valley, it matters where you shop.

Valley shoppers support businesses of all sizes, but if we want to throw our weight around, it’s worth knowing what happens when we shop with our neighbors at their businesses. When you buy new jeans, a TV, a haircut or a meal from a locally owned business, that money goes directly into our local economy in the form of wages. Then those wages are spent again on food, rent and other necessities.

Organizations such as the National Federation of Independent Business say that dollars spent at locally owned businesses turn over in this way an estimated seven to 10 times before leaving the region.

“It forever needs pointing out that it is small businesses, not big businesses, not big box stores, that employ the majority of working Alaskans and generate almost every new job,” says Denny DeWitt, Alaska state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. “These pillars of their communities feed the families of their employees while operating on the thinnest of profit margins, so any little boost they receive, tens of thousands of others benefit from.”

The group launched Small Business Saturday in 2010 to raise awareness of the power consumers have to boost local economies through choices about where we spend our money. Also part of the idea is for shoppers to purposefully invest a portion of their hard-earned dollars in small shops as a thank you to these businesses that serve the community year-round.

“Small Business Saturday is an opportunity for each of us to give back, to invest some of our hard-earned dollars into Main Street,” DeWitt said.

We encourage our neighbors to take time to visit the Valley’s many independent businesses and support their commitment to our community by choosing to spend your money in their shops. While you are there, strike up a conversation and meet your neighbors. You’ll be glad you did.