As a small business owner, my work, job, and livelihood depends directly on my clients choosing to hire me.   When you purchase from a small business owner (or hire them to take your family photos, etc!) you are literally paying for their life to happen–for us, it’s E2’s dance lessons, and E1’s piano books, for our groceries.  It feels strange to talk about, but everyone who works is paid, and when it’s a small business owner, you are so directly impacting their family.

I am so so thankful to every friend and customer who has hired me over the last 8 years.  It means so much that you trust me to capture and keep your memories– but it ALSO means so much to me that you choose MY family to support.  What I want to share here though is that in 2020, and in life in general, sometimes you might not be able to (or need to) purchase specifically from your friends or favorite small businesses.  Maybe you aren’t super interested in what they offer, or maybe you just don’t have the extra money in your budget, which everyone can understand, especially now!  This post is all facts that online small businesses already knows fully well- but information that I don’t know if someone not running an online business really knows, and here it is:

There are so so many ways to support a small business that have NOTHING to do with actually purchasing!

Here are a few of the easiest:

1). Tell your friends about your favorite small businesses!  People ask for recommendations all the time in life- speak about your favorite small business owners when you have an opportunity to!

2). If you see something you like from your small business owning friends (a cute sweater, a gorgeous photo, whatever!), even if it’s not something you can buy or a photo of you…SHARE IT!  Share it with some words!  Saying “My friend, ___ owns ___ and does gorgeous work!” is such a wonderful and powerful endorsement to your friends!  Even if you have ever purchased from an online boutique or been photographed by a specific photographer, you can see beautiful clothing, gorgeous photos, etc– so feel free to share them.  When you tag a small business in a post of someone’s asking for a recommendation– it tells facebook/instagram that that page is well liked– and therefore will show more posts to it’s followers!

3). Comment on their posts!  Social media is important marketing for small business owners- the most powerful and useful sort!  And it all works on algorithms now- which means that even out of my almost 2000 instagram followers, probably about 200-300 even SEE any post I make, let alone interact with it.  But if you comment, like, or best yet share those posts…they are shown not just more to you…but more to others as well because the platform sees it as liked and important! It is SO simple to like posts!

4). Share their profiles in your feed/stories to help others to follow along!  If they share work, or personal life, or content in general that inspires you– encourage your friends to follow along too by sharing an easy way to find the business profile and follow along/like it too!

These are 4 easy, simple ways you can help your small business owning friends!  Liking a photo is SO SO simple, and commenting or sharing really is too.  You don’t have to have something brilliant and special to say– just a “My friend Amanda sells the cutest clothes” sort of thing goes a LONG way!  And– beyond helping your small business owning friends– sharing things you love also helps your friends find things they love, and spreads some joy around…and we can all use a little more of that!

PS– I’m rather close to 2000 followers on Instagram, and when business owners get to 10,000 (a far way away still for me), a WHOLE WORLD of marketing options open to them!  So if you would like to follow along- join me HERE!