Posted by MiriamEllis

“American business is overwhelmingly small business.” – SBE Council

Small businesses have created 61.8% of net new jobs in the US since the early 1990s. Local business is big business. Let’s celebrate this in honor of Small Business Saturday with 3 strategies that will support independent business owners this week, and in the better future that can be attained with the right efforts.

What’s Small Business Saturday?

It’s an annual shopping event sponsored by American Express on the Saturday following Thanksgiving with the primary goal of encouraging residents to patronize local merchants. The program was launched in 2010 in response to the Great Recession. By 2017, Small Business Saturday jumped to 7,200 Neighborhood Champions (individuals and groups that organize towns for the event), with 108 million reported participating consumers spending $12 billion across the country.

Those numbers are impressive, and more than that, they hold the acorn of strategy for the spreading oak of a nation in which independently grown communities set standards of living, set policy, and set us on course for a sustainable future.

Tips for small businesses today

If your community is already participating in Small Business Saturday, try these techniques to enhance your success on the big day:

1. Give an extra reason to shop with you

This can be as simple as giving customers a small discount or a small free gift with their purchase, or as far-reaching as donating part of the proceeds of the day’s sales to a worthy local cause. Give customers a reason to feel extra good that they shopped with you, especially if you can demonstrate how their purchase supports their own community. Check out our Local Business Holiday Checklist for further tips.

2. Give local media something to report

Creativity is your best asset in deciding how to make your place of business a top destination on Small Business Saturday, worthy of mentions in the local news. Live music? A treasure hunt? The best store window in town? Reach out to reporters if you’re doing something extra special to build up publicity.

3. Give a reason to come back year-round

Turn a shopping moment into a teaching moment. Print up some flyers from the American Independent Business Alliance and pass them out to customers to teach them how local purchasing increases local wealth, health, and security. Take a minute or two to talk with customers who express interest. Sometimes, all it takes is a little education and kindness to shift habits. First, take a few minutes to boost your own education by reading How to Win Some Customer Back from Amazon this Holiday Season.

AMIBA has a great list of tips for Small Business Saturday success and American Express has thebest examples of how whole communities have created memorable events surrounding these campaigns. I’ve seen everything from community breakfast kickoffs in Michigan, to jazz bands in Louisiana, to Santa Claus coming to town on a riverboat in California. Working closely with participating neighboring businesses can transform your town or city into a holiday wonderland on this special day, and if your community isn’t involved yet, research this year can prepare you to rally support for an application to next year’s program.

Tips for small businesses for the new year

Unless your town is truly so small that all residents are already aware of every business located there, make 2019 the year you put the Internet to work for you and your community. Even small town businesses have news and promotions they’d like to share on the web, and don’t forget the arrival of new neighbors and travelers who need to be guided to find you. In larger cities, every resident and visitor needs help navigating the local commercial scene.

Try these tips for growth in the new year:

Dig deeply into the Buy Local movement by reading The Local SEO’s Guide to the Buy Local Phenomenon. Even if you see yourself as a merchant today, you can re-envision your role as a community advocate, improving the quality of life for your entire town.
Expand your vision of excellent customer service to include the reality that your neighbors are almost all on the Internet part of every day looking for solutions to their problems. A combination of on-and-offline customer service is your key to becoming the problem-solver that wins lucrative, loyal patrons. Read What the Local Customer Service Ecosystem Looks Like in 2019.
Not sure where to begin learning about local search marketing on the web? First, check out Moz’s free Local SEO Learning Center with articles written for the beginner to familiarize yourself with the basic concepts. Then, start following the recognized leaders in this form of marketingto keep pace with new developments and opportunities as they arise. Make a new year’s resolution to devote just 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week, to learning more about marketing your small local business. By the end of a single year, you will have become a serious force for promotion of your company and the community it serves.
Tips for an independent business future: The time is right

I’ve been working in local business marketing for about 15 years, watching not just the development of technologies, but the ebb and flow of brand and consumer habits and attitudes. What I’m observing with most interest as we close out the present year is a rising tide of localistic leanings.

On the one hand, we have some of the largest brands (Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc.) losing the trust of the public in serious scandals surrounding privacy, human rights violations, and even war. On the other hand, we have small business owners uniting to revitalize their communities in wounded cities like Detroit and tiny towns like Bozeman, in the wake of the Great Recession, itself cited as a big brand product.

Where your company does business may influence your customers’ take on economics, but overall, the engrossing trend I’m seeing is towards more trust in smaller, independently owned companies. In fact, communities across the US are starting to map out futures for themselves that are as self-sustaining as possible. Earlier, I referenced small business owners undergoing a mental shift from lone merchant to community advocate, and here, I’ve mapped out a basic model for towns and cities to shift toward independence.

What most communities can’t access locally are branded products: imported big label clothing, packaged foods, electronics, cars, branded cosmetics, books. Similarly, most communities don’t have direct local access to the manufacture or mining of plastics, metals, and gases. And, very often, towns and cities lack access to agroforestry for raw lumber, fuel, natural fibers and free food. So, let’s say for now that the typical community leaves these things up to big brands so that they can still buy computers, books and stainless steel cookware from major manufacturers.

But beyond this, with the right planning, the majority of the components for a high standard of living can be created and owned locally. For example:

Even large cities can divest from big banks, putting their money into small banks and community credit unions.
Communities can create their own solar energy, power themselves, and even sell their excess product to others. Internet, water, refuse, and recycling can be locally-owned, too.
Whether in town or country, farms as small as 3 acres can feed 10,000 people in a year. Such farms can not only directly supply residents with fresh food, but can also stock independently-owned grocery stores and increasingly-popular farm-to-table restaurants. Communities are building or restoring mills to process grain and other products. Eventually, this could extend to fiber and lumber mills.
Communities in some areas are already paying for the training and presence of their own doctors. And, part of city budgets are already often earmarked for fire and first responder services.
With the right craftspeople, the necessities and luxuries of life can be produced by tailors, glass blowers, blacksmiths, potters, carpenters, masons, and others. Local or regional products can be vended directly or by independently-owned retailers. With some effort, residents can live in, sit on, wear, drink and eat from products made not far from home.
Some cities are experimenting with free community colleges and others are opening local centers for continuing higher education like TechTown which helps local businesses launch and grow.
Finally, there is the full menu of personal services like home services, elder care, beauty, and fitness that are already often independently owned and can continue to grow in a motivated community.

There are certainly some things we may rely on big brands and federal resources for, but it isn’t Amazon or the IRS who give us a friendly wave as we take our morning hike through town, making us feel acknowledged as people and improving our sense of community. For that, we have to rely on our neighbor. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that it’s up to towns and cities to determine whether neighbors are experiencing a decent standard of living.

Reading the mood of the economy, I am seeing more and more Americans becoming open to the messages that the percentage of small businesses in a community correlates with residents’ health, that quality social interactions lessen the chances of premature death by 50%, that independent businesses recirculate almost 4x as much community wealth, and that Main Street-style city planning massively reduces pollution vs. big box stores on the outskirts of town.

Small Business Saturday doesn’t have to be a once-a-year phenomenon. Small business owners, by joining together as community advocates, have the power to make it a way of life where they live. And they have one significant advantage over most corporations, the value of which shouldn’t be underestimated: They can begin the most important conversations face-to-face with their neighbors, asking, “Who do we want to be? Where do want to live? What’s our best vision for how life could be here?”

Don’t be afraid to talk beyond transactions with your favorite customers. Listening closely, I believe you’ll discover that there’s a longing for change and that the time is right.

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Google Maps is one of the most amazing pieces of technology to come out of Silicon Valley. You can explore the entire world without ever leaving the comfort of your living room. However, there are a few places on Earth that Google won’t let you see.

 

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An electric vehicle cruising down the highway, a solar panel installed on a neighbor’s rooftop, a wind turbine turning in the breeze: These are just a few of the powerful symbols that represent the blossoming renewable energy economy

There’s little doubt that the world is on the cusp of a new era of energy generation and consumption. From the rise of renewable fuel sources to the increasing number of companies like AT&T that are investing in clean energy, renewables are swiftly becoming a booming industry

As a result, we’re in the midst of an explosion of opportunity — both economic and environmental. In America, the seismic shift toward renewables is evident in both classrooms and boardrooms, particularly as major international corporations invest heavily in clean energy. Earlier in 2018, for instance, AT&T announced the expansion of its renewable energy program in collaboration with NextEra Energy Resources. Read more…

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California is kicking its climate change fight into overdrive by passing a bill requiring 100% of its energy to come from carbon-free sources by 2045.
The move represents the latest in the state’s ideological differences with President Donald Trump regarding environmental regulation. While Trump campaigned that he would reinvigorate the nation’s coal industry, this bill will ban all coal-sourced electricity. 
California joins Hawaii as the only other state with this same goal.

California reaffirmed its commitment to combatting the effects of climate change Tuesday when lawmakers passed a historic bill mandating that all of the state’s electricity come from carbon-free sources by 2045.

Electricity production accounts for the second-largest share of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions after transportation, which have been heavily linked to global warming. Nearly 68% of electricity in the US came from burning fossil fuels, consisting mainly of coal and natural gas, according to a 2016 study from the Environmental Protection Agency.See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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The probe is expected to take flight atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket at 3:33 a.m. ET on Saturday, ironically launching to the sun in the dead of night from Cape Canaveral Florida. 

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Whether you dress purely for function or you have a serious obsession with fashion, you likely own at least a few pairs of jeans. These versatile, comfortable pants should last many, many years — in theory. If you’re not shopping the right brands, you could be left with poorly constructed jeans that don’t feel good or last very long. 

Since jeans will never go out of style (at least, we hope they won’t), it’s a good idea to invest in premium quality pairs. If the word “premium” scares you, don’t back away just yet. Nowadays, startups are getting smarter with the way they make and sell top quality jeans.

Sourcing directly from top denim mills, using sustainable and innovative production methods, and employing the design expertise of denim industry veterans, they’re able to offer customers really great jeans for less than $150, and often, less than $100. 

Once you’ve tried the denim from these online companies, you won’t be able to go back. The jeans are stylish, incredibly comfortable, and surprisingly affordable. 

Mott & Bow
Mott & Bow

Shop premium denim at Mott & Bow here

The founder of Mott & Bow grew up learning all about jean-making in his family’s denim manufacturing facility in Honduras, where Mott & Bow’s jeans are still manufactured today. Likening the process to fine wine-making, where source matters, the company buys its premium denim from respected mills in Turkey and Italy, then measures and treats it to maximize comfort and style. 

We’ve tried its women’s skinny jeans and Mom jeans, as well as the men’s Wooster jeans, and had glowing things to say about their comfortable, flattering fit. But Mott & Bow knows you can’t always get the perfect fit right away, which is why it lets you you add a free try-on pair in the next size up or down to your order. Its jeans range in price from $96 to $128, and you’ll find slim, straight, skinny, and “mom” jeans in a variety of washes. 

Everlane
Everlane/Instagram

Shop premium women’s denim and men’s denim at Everlane here

Everlane has always espoused transparency, telling you exactly where its products are made and how much it costs to make them, from materials and labor to transport. The path to its denim apparel (which attracted a 40,000-person waitlist in 2017) is no different. Its LEED-certified factory in Vietnam recycles 98% of its water and relies on alternative energy sources to make stylish jeans you can feel good about wearing. 

The startup is always dropping new styles for men and women, but if you’re not sure where to start, the Slim Fit Jean is a bestseller for men, and the High-Rise Skinny Jean is a favorite among women. Our personal favorite is the Kick Crop Jean, which looked surprisingly good on every member of the team despite our height differences. Every Everlane jean style only costs $68 or $78. 

DUER
DUER/Instagram

Shop premium women’s denim and men’s denim at DUER here

DUER combines fashion and function, so it’s no wonder the brand is a favorite among athletes, outdoor enthusiasts, and commuters. The company was founded by a denim expert who spent 25 years making jeans for Levi’s, Guess, and Lee, and a performance fabric expert who spent 25 years working with technical brands. 

Its unique Performance Denim is super stretchy and light, while wicking away moisture and neutralizing odor. These features are optimized for outdoor use, which is why you can find DUER jeans at retailers like REI. The easy-to-wear styles cost $120 to $140.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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President Donald Trump has been on a nearly six-month long tariff spree, kicking off trade wars with several countries.
Trump has placed tariffs on everything from steel to chicken incubators.
Trading partners including China, Canada, the European Union, and Mexico have hit the US with retaliatory tariffs.
Here’s a breakdown of how we got here and what the tariffs mean for the economy.

President Donald Trump declared on March 2 via Twitter: “When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win.”

The tweet marked the announcement that the US would impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports coming into the country — and the start of a growing trade war.

Since that point, Trump has opened up trade battles on a series of fronts, and the US and other countries around the world have slapped tariffs on $85 billion worth of goods.

Trump has long been a fan of tough action on trade. In the 1980s, the then-real estate mogul railed against the US’s trade deficit and warned of “other countries ripping off the United States.” In a 1990 Playboy interview, Trump was asked about his first action if he ever became president.

“Many things. A toughness of attitude would prevail,” Trump said. “I’d throw a tax on every Mercedes-Benz rolling into this country and on all Japanese products, and we’d have wonderful allies again.”

Given the president’s decades-long history of protectionist statements and direct signals on the campaign trail, the recent spate of trade restrictions should come as no surprise.

So far, Trump has used tariffs as the main weapon in his trade war. A tariff is a tax on a good coming into the US, also known as a duty. These duties are collected by Customs and Border Protection at the good’s port of entry. Once tariffs go into place, importers face the extra fee immediately.

Trump placed tariffs on a wide variety of goods and the moves are starting to make an impact on the US economy, prices, and more. Here’s a breakdown of how Trump’s trade fight is starting to take its toll.

The number of tariffs Trump has enacted or threatened is piling up.
Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

Trump’s hard line on trade kicked off in February, when the administration officially placed tariffs on imports of washing machines and solar energy equipment.

But the protectionist push began in earnest at the start of March, when Trump announced a 25% tariff on imported steel and 10% tariff on imported aluminum. This move triggered widespread pushback from allies, since the tariffs were implemented on national security grounds.

Allies like Canada, the European Union, and Mexico argue that they pose no national security risk to the US and thus should not be slapped with tariffs. Those three countries, along with China and others, have filed a suit against the US with the World Trade Organization arguing the tariffs are illegal.

So far, the enacted tariffs haven’t hit a large percentage of goods with major trading partners, but that could change in a hurry.
Jenny Cheng/Business Insider

China is the biggest target for Trump so far, with 11.7% of the total goods going between the two countries subject to tariffs.

Trump has also threatened to hit another $400 billion worth of Chinese goods with tariffs due to their retaliation. China accused the president of starting the “largest trade war in economic history.” While that claim may be a slight exaggeration now, it may come true in time.

The fight with Canada is the second-largest front in the trade battle, with 4.5% of total trade with the US subject to tariffs. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the tariffs “insulting.”

Just 1.5% of the total trade between the US and EU is subject to tariffs, and 1.1% of trade between the US and Mexico.

For the EU, Canada, and Mexico, the amount of trade subject to tariffs would increase dramatically if Trump follows through on his threat to place tariffs on imports of cars and auto parts.

The goods subject to tariffs are wide-ranging — from bulldozers to chicken incubators to hairspray.
Jenny Cheng/Business Insider

Trump’s tariffs have so far focused on industrial goods like metals, machinery, and components.

In particular, Trump has tried to attack industries that are part of China’s Made in China 2025 plan, which is designed to help boost Chinese companies in a variety of high-growth industries like technology.

By comparison, the retaliatory tariffs from China, the EU, and others predominately go after US agricultural goods, as well as a jumble of consumer products like nail polish and kitchen equipment.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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