Your Shop Is Essential — A Pep Talk to Survive the Dreaded Question “How's That Little Business Of Yours Going?"

This week’s episode is for everyone who’s bracing themselves for the dreaded holiday gathering question — "how's that little business of yours going?" ... or worse “when are you gonna get a real job?”

So triggering, isn’t it?! Because you know that running your business is hard work. I know that running your business is hard work. But too many people just don’t get it.

So tune in for a pep talk feat. a few small biz stats just for you, bestie.
Because your shop is essential. And your shop’s growth is essential. It’s essential for our lives, our communities, our economies, and our world.

Thanks for being in business & happy holidays my loves.

🕸 feelgoodretail.com

📱 @feelgoodretail

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Transcript

0:27

Welcome to retail for the rest of us a podcast for Indie retailers and makers and Shop owners who want to do business differently. I'm your host Janine Malone retail expert small business cheerleader in the founder of feel-good retail. On this show you'll hear insights strategies and ideas on how to sustain and scale your shop without sacrificing your sanity. Each week you'll hear from me and the occasional guest expert in what I hope feels more like a voice note from your retail BFF than a business podcast. Additional goodies and support can be found in our show notes and it feel good retail.com now let's get into the show. Music. Hey everyone welcome back to retail for the rest of us I'm your host Janine Malone and today I want to. Arm you with some statistics, so if any one says oh and how's your little business doing to you over the holidays you can hit him with some facts. This is also may be a pep talk but I don't know I'm taking the spicier route today I'm just feeling like you know the holidays are a time we see our friends and our family and people who may not understand what we do for a living. And I just wanted to remind you before that happens that your business is so important it matters so much that you have gone out on your own and started this company and are working tirelessly to not only ensure that it survives but thrives and that you. Are contributing in some way to your community to the economy and creating something really unique and special. I often find with retail and I definitely found this to be true, prior to feel-good retail when I was kind of working inside of small businesses and still working on sales floors that there definitely was a, General sense of when are you going to get a real job which is a huge trigger for me, as you can probably already tell because I love retail I love it so much and I think that it's a perfectly viable career choice, and I also think when you couple that with being a small business owner it gets a little tricky for people to comprehend and so, again just want to give you a little bit of reassurance that this isn't a silly side project this is it, a little business this isn't a hobby that you'll grow out of and quote-unquote get a real job. It actually is a huge contribution that you're making and, challenging one as we've talked quite a bit about over these last few months running a small business is hard work, no matter how much money your small business makes there is time and tears and creativity and failure and imposter syndrome and scarcity and abundance and highs and lows all rolled in to this one beautiful little package that we call small business ownership. And so today I really wanted to give you a little pep talk this is the last week before the holiday you're in the final stretch and like I said, just give you some cold hard facts in case anyone, comes for you this holiday season catch me at my holiday table spitting these. Pretty aggressively once I won't ask so my work is doing because I'm defensive okay ready. I share these stats because they really blew my mind when I found them and because, they have become sort of foundational to why I do the work that I do not only do I love Creative small business owners and really get a lot of joy and satisfaction and fulfillment out of teaching strategy and operations and helping. Creative Visionary people. Run their businesses but I also do it because I think Indy retails really important I think that there's just. Too many threats to the idea that we will all have these unique and. Abundant and creative communities around us if small businesses don't survive if Amazon takes over the world and that's just not. Our world I want to live in and so this is my way of assisting in that fight and so. What'd I say your shop. Is essential and particularly that your shops growth is essential I don't mean it in the way of like Silicon Valley Tech like grow or die. You know I mean it in the way that like. Indie retailers are a critical part of healthy thriving local communities and local economies. Since 1990 big businesses have eliminated four million jobs while small businesses have added eight million. Think about that that is mind-blowing that. And not surprising you know corporations and big businesses want to prioritize profit over, every single other thing and so, cut Workforce pretty frequently they grow too fast they can't sustain that pace they have to have layoffs etc etc etc whereas small businesses as they're growing, they are able to create more opportunities to delegate to bring on Specialists to hire managers to duplicate themselves in some way within their business and to see that small businesses are. Contributing in that way not only to grow. The job market but also make up for the loss of big businesses like okay go off you know. Our second fun fact is that local retailers reinvest 130 percent more of their revenue into their communities than big box brands. And they reinvest almost 700. Seven hundred percent more into their Community is than Amazon which is. Staggering so. You know I get it I'm No Angel when it comes to Amazon either I'm not perfect sometimes, I forget to buy dog food and it's too late to go to the shop that I like to buy dog food at, you know and so I order it for next day delivery from Amazon and it's not my proudest moment but when you really think about, how much money. Is removed from your local community when you are consistently shopping on Amazon as opposed to even going to big box brands that are local clearly you know, it is a staggering difference and I think that's a fact that really. Supports the idea of shopping local without having. Say much else right like keep your money in your you know circulation of your community, it's not necessarily like giving back by any means but to know that your dollar goes to supporting a, business that is locally owned that employs local folks that very likely is supporting other local vendors, everyone from like packaging companies to printing companies to like your just local post office is really really important. Fact number three if every family in the United States spent an extra ten dollars a month at a locally owned independent shop, versus a national chain over nine point three billion dollars would be directly returned to local economies that is a staggering, amount of money and goes to show that all of those small purchases can make a huge difference. I think that one really speaks for itself to be honest. And lastly in this is my favorite one to really just whip out at a party invite me to parties I'm clearly very fun, is that 25 percent of all jobs in the United States are in retail. And forty percent of those jobs are created by retail companies with fewer than 50 employees which is how the United States categorize a small business is less than 50 employees so total. Independent retail companies account for 10% of the workforce again staggering that is a number of which. It's like hard to comprehend to me honestly that. Small shops are critical to job opportunities again obviously that's something that contributes to the local economy as well as our national economy and goes to show that, there is just a lot of opportunity to invest, in those kind of businesses and you know as a consumer to by there as our country should be investing more resources and supporting small businesses and just to really understand the scale at which Indie retailers really do contribute and you know this is all without getting into the idea of, prophet and paying taxes right like of course you can always hit them with the like well I business pays its fair share in taxes so pretty happy about that, again I'm very fun to have at a Christmas dinner table. I just want you to know that the next time that someone calls your business small that you. That your impact is actually huge. And you continuing to grow your shop is. Essential to the health and well-being and growth of the economy. Which here in these United States I'm pretty sure we value more than anything else question mark so. I'm proud of you you made it through another holiday season whether your shop showed growth this year or not its survival is so important and so. Not guaranteed so if you're hearing this you did an amazing job and it's almost over. We get to start a fresh new year and reinvigorate ourselves. To do even more expansion even more growth even more abundance so. And wishing you a very very happy holiday thank you for being here thank you so much for being in business. Cheers to feeling good. Thanks for listening to retail for the rest of us find additional information and resources related to this episode in the show notes are on our website feel good retail.com this show was lovingly produced and edited by softer sounds a feminist podcast Studio, if you enjoyed this episode please take a minute to text it to your business bestie share it on social media and leave us a rating or review it really helps the showgirl organically and we love making new friends, thank you for being here thank you for being in business and cheers to. Music.