How Your Community Can Help Your Biz

One of the things most valuable about brick and mortar retailers is that they truly care about their own communities. After all, by deciding to open, operate and own a store within a community, they are giving back to that neighborhood in so many ways. Whether it’s adding the obvious – a place to shop – or by drawing in crowds from other communities, locally owned businesses are so valuable. So just what do you get in return for giving so much outward? Well, depending on how you look at it, a lot. Knowing the impact you are contributing to your community – both financially and socially – there are many ways your community can thank you. A few ideas that you can kindly share at your next chamber meeting or school PTA include:

[tweetmeme]1. Bring the buzz to your store.Is your local high school going to state for an orchestra competition? Let them get their nerves out of their system by performing in your store! Even if state isn’t in their future, invite student talent of all sorts to your business to add both fun and excitement in your shopping environment while also encouraging the opportunity for new customers to walk through your doors. After all, the performing students are bound to tell family and friends to come take a peak. And for community members who don’t have students enrolled in the schools, this a great way for them to get to know the local youth. As for you… just make sure you have enough people working to keep up with the extra sales!

2. Create a work program to assist students or the disabled.Many communities have organizations that encourage partnerships between businesses and people who may not easily get a job otherwise. Seek out how you can create a program that offers this support in your store. Not only will you be doing a very good thing (on top of all the other great things you already do as a store owner) but you will gain respect and reward in sales, as  a result. While marketing this isn’t the purpose of this type of activity, it should be utilized to help make up for your time and dollars spent to conduct this program. Have special shopping nights, design a fundraising campaign or simply rotate this program into your everyday routine. Either way, it will introduce new customers to your business and you will get more down in your store with the extra set of hands. Since often these types of jobs don’t pay, this can bring value to your store in many ways. But only do this if you sincerely care about the people involved here. After all, that is the real goal.

3. Have a local shopping night specific to a local organization. Partner up with other area businesses and make shopping local an event for the PTA, a moms group or another locally based club/organization/business. Do a “store crawl” with events and savings at each store, offer incentives for purchases made, invite special guests to make the event more fun and offer drinks and food if allowed. The catch here is to make this specific to a group of people. By doing this, there will be a collective interest and an organized outreach in supporting the event.

4. Talk to your local press about the value of shopping locally. Don’t just pitch your store, pitch the idea of supporting local businesses. Remind them kindly that their articles impact their community. And without stores like you in the community, it wouldn’t be as exciting to live in.

5. Invite your customers and other business owners to become familiar with the 3/50 Project. This helps you more than anything because it’s  a movement to help save the nation’s brick and mortar stores. Learn more by visiting http://www.the350project.net/home.html.

Think outside your retail store to get the community to give back to you. This will be a circle effect in not only helping your business, but helping them more than you already do (even if they don’t know it!).