An Expert Guide to Championing Small Businesses
Explore the Small Unites guide to small business support and shopping small this season and beyond
When small businesses thrive, communities thrive, and it’s more critical than ever that we recognize the impact of small business support during the 2020 holiday season and beyond. Imagine a neighborhood without the quintessential family-owned bakery, the comforting smell of baking bread from a decades-old family recipe wafting through the windows, or the pet shop with the most adorable artisan-sewn sweaters and ice-cream window for our four-legged family members. Small businesses largely represent the ingenuity, dreams, and ambitions of people just like us – and most of them are in it to make the world a more joyous and just place.
Maya-Camille Broussard, the mastermind behind the Justice of the Pies bakery says, “As I see it, we can be stewards for fairness and equality with the opportunities that come our way.” Broussard, along with small business owners across the country, has had to pivot her business during the pandemic to stay afloat.
For Broussard, that meant remembering why she was in business in the first place: to support her community. Broussard’s been in the business of activism (and pie!) since she first founded Justice of the Pies in 2014. Pre-pandemic, she worked to end food insecurity in Chicago neighborhoods and organized pie drives to support free legal services for families. At the onset of the pandemic, Broussard quickly pivoted to where help was needed: providing meals to frontline hospital workers. She then partnered with corporate brands to serve even more meals to the community.
Silver-lining stories like Broussard’s are only possible because these small businesses and their communities are working to support each other through these difficult times.
That’s why Capital One partnered with a coalition of brands and nonprofit organizations to launch Small Unites, a national advocacy program that is providing ongoing support for small businesses across America. This season and onward, we hope we can rally support behind the small businesses that have given us so much. Here are three actions you can take to safely make supporting small business a priority this season and onward.
- Shop: Make a point to shop local, when possible, and seek out creative ways to support small businesses that may arise in your social media feeds. Many businesses are pivoting to offer delivery or curbside pickup, so you can stay safe while supporting small businesses. Here are a handful of expert-curated guides to shopping small:
- Donate: Visit SmallUnites.org to find donation opportunities via GoFundMe’s Small Business Relief Fund and directory, as well as the National Urban League’s Entrepreneurship Center Program, through which you can find minority-owned businesses in the community to support. You can also raise funds by leaving private reviews of small businesses in your area through HundredX. For each review, HundredX will donate $2 to nonprofits that support minority-owned small businesses, up to $100 per person.
- Share: You can also use the #SmallUnites hashtag on social media to share your small business experiences and recommendations. Why not create your own “holiday gift guide” featuring your favorite businesses and products? This can help introduce friends and neighbors to new businesses that they otherwise might not come across.
Small business owners have shown resilience and resolve as they’ve adapted under extraordinary circumstances. As local businesses continue to support communities around the country, there are many ways to participate in showing how much these small businesses mean to you, too.
