8 Easy Ways to Support Small Businesses Without Spending Money
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Holiday shopping can cause many to panic, buying what is convenient and easy. But have you thought about purchasing from a small business?
Many small businesses make a large chunk of their sales during the holiday season but what can you do to support these companies without spending money? I’ve got you covered with these 10 tips.
Write a review
This is by far one of the most important ways to support a small business, especially ones that are product based. I don’t know about you, but when I am shopping for items that are unique and that I haven’t purchased before, I read the reviews.
As a consumer, I want to make sure that the monetary investment I am making in a product is going to pay off. Is the product going to last? Will it stand up to my crazy toddlers? Will it bring value into my life? Writing a review shows consumers that the product is worth the money spent.
This goes for service-based businesses, too! I always ask for testimonials from my clients and I encourage them to be as specific as possible. I love when clients explain what they enjoyed about working with me, the value in my services, what they gained by hiring me, and how they felt about the deliverables they received.
Writing reviews and testimonials is also a great way to help businesses create content because they can use your words as promotional content on their website, social media, and product tangibles.
Stay tuned for a future blog post about how to get your clients to write useful and thorough testimonials and reviews!
Share their content
This is probably obvious, but I’ll explain anyway! When you share a company’s content on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, you get more eyes on their business.
As an example, my personal Instagram account has about 550 followers and whenever I post a story, I get at least 100 views. If I share my clients work who lives on the West Coast, that’s at least 100 people seeing her business that may have not seen it otherwise!
Social media is a powerful tool. It costs nothing to share content from a small business but it often means the world the owner!
Tag them in your content
This goes along with sharing their content in that the goal of tagging is to get more eyes on the business.
By providing your audience with a direct link to the business, you are inviting potential new customers to explore the business on their own- whether that’s through the business website or social media profiles.
Tell a friend
Maybe you’re not the ideal customer for your friends small business but chances are, you know someone who is. You’re not spending money to support the business, but you’re bringing them their ideal customer who may benefit from their content, good, or service.
It’s really a win-win! You don’t have to spend money but you’re showing a potential customer the value in the business while helping your friend along the way.
Purchase from them to gift to a friend or relative to use. Even better- buy a gift card if available!
Again, you may not be in the market for what your business owner pal is selling, but maybe you have a friend or relative who would enjoy something! Especially around the holidays, it’s easy to shop small when you think outside of yourself.
Maybe your friend owns a clothing boutique but you’re not sure about sizing and fit. Consider a gift card! That way the person you are gifting for can purchase what they would enjoy most.
Join their email list
You might think it’s a waste to join a company’s email list if you never intend to buy from them but what I say to that is “never say never!” Just because you aren’t in a position to purchase their product or service now, doesn’t mean you might not be in a position to buy from them in the future.
In addition, many businesses put out useful and valuable content to their email list so at the very least, you could learn something new!
My favorite- ask how you can help them get something done for their business.
For me it would be watching my kids. I am very limited on time as I run this business with two small children, so even taking my kids to the park for an hour would be extremely helpful!
If you’ve got some business, creative, or tech skills, offer to help them with a simple task that would take you less than an hour. Before getting FloDesk, I struggled with creating an email automation for my company. My friend who has years of marketing experience was able to help answer a few quick questions for me and I was so grateful!
If babysitting is not quite your thing, consider purchasing a tool or gadget they may need for their business. For my birthday, my friend recently bought me this ring light. It definitely wasn’t a must have so I avoided purchasing one for myself for the longest time so it was nice when it showed up unexpectedly on my doorstep.
Be direct.
When in doubt, lending an ear and being a shoulder to lean on (or cry on!) is one of the best things you can do for a business owner. Starting a small business takes an incredible amount of energy, grit, and discipline. Often times, we want to throw the towel in and give up.
Hearing words of encouragement from our friends can be just the thing that helps us push through the hard times. And it doesn’t cost a cent!
If you'd like to support small businesses, like mine, without spending money, I hope you found this list helpful!