How to support small businesses for free – and also some ways to support small businesses for a little money.

It is important to support small businesses – we need them! The ever increasing cost of living if affecting most of us these days. It is a difficult time for many, including small businesses. Prices for business necessities and life expenses are increasing – electricity, insurances, travel expenses, supplies, broadband, phone, etc – yet incomes are not keeping up with these costs.

Here in the UK, HMRC (this stands for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, responsible for collecting taxes) set the price for travel expenses (for tax purposes) for using your own vehicle at 45p per mile. This figure includes the cost of fuel, maintenance of the vehicle, repairs, ear and tear, etc whilst travelling for business purposes, yet it was set in 2011 – everything is much more expensive now. It is calculated that a more realistic price per mile should be at least 60p, but because HMRC use 45p it is virtually impossible for people to charge clients much more than this rate.

Whether offering a service such as therapeutic massage, selling homemade crafts, growing food in a market garden, running a small decorating business, or like myself working as a sole trader freelancer, writing, speaking and running courses and workshops – small businesses are feeling the impact of the current economic situation.

There are some who are earning a lot of money, and it can perhaps give a false impression that all market gardeners are wealthy, all people with a reasonable social media following are high paid influencers, or all writers are earning huge royalties. This is lovely for them of course – but this post is about helping the rest of us who are not high earners!

Small businesses are important

Small businesses create community. They can keep town centres alive and thriving, with a diversity of shops, cafes and experiences. Money which is spent on local businesses help to keep money in the local economy, rather than heading off into off shore accounts of some huge faceless business. Money spend online with small businesses help to support them directly, and often this will have an effect on their local community.

Using smaller businesses is often a more environmentally friendly option, with products made from natural locally sourced ingredients/supplies, less waste (not least because small businesses can’t afford to waste anything!), less packaging, less mileage, etc.

It helps to prevent the world from becoming completely dominated by just a handful of huge businesses, which already earn a phenomenal amount of money.

Socially it is important too. You can put a face to the product or service. A real person, not AI!

How to help support small businesses for free

Surprisingly it is becoming more difficult for smaller businesses to promote themselves, even though there seems to be an ever increasing range of options: social media, Substack, You Tube etc. But the algorithms that govern whether social media posts are shared widely are not stacked in favour of small businesses. Many have noticed that engagement has dropped, and posts that used to reach a wide audience barely get any notice on social media now. Indeed, many have noticed that posts specifically about their work – promoting a new book, product, course or service – barely get any engagement at all. Also, it seems that as soon as we get the hang of say Instagram, all of the criteria change and we have to learn it all again.

Discussing this with different small businesses is one of the reasons why I decided to write this blog post. If there’s anything you think I have missed out, please let me know in the comments.

Ten ways to help promote small businesses for free

 

1. Follow their social media accounts and website.

Following their Facebook business Page for example can help to boost its visibility. Following their Instagram can help them get more work. Subscribing to a blog or website (subscribe to mine here) and liking/commenting on posts, can help boost the ratings on search engines, giving the small business more publicity.

2. Like, comment, share and engage with their posts.

This helps to promote the posts to a wider audience. It also tells the algorithm that the content is appealing and worth promoting. On Facebook, it’s better to “love” rather than “like” posts and comments.

3. Like, comment and share their ad/paid partnership posts.

Many small businesses use these paid partnerships as an income stream. You don’t have to buy the stuff, but liking and commenting (“That’s a lovely hat”, “What a great idea”) can help them get more work like this (of course don’t do it if it is for something that isn’t ok with you, just scroll on by).

4. Leave positive reviews and make recommendations.

This could be on their social media, website, Trust Pilot, etc. For authors, if you’ve enjoyed their book leave a review on Goodreads, Amazon (yes I know, but it can make a real difference to authors) etc. You don’t have to have bought the book from there to leave a review.

5. Post a picture.

If you’ve enjoyed visiting their craft stall, reading their article in a magazine, or admired their bakes at a farmer’s market, post a photo and tag them. The small business will be thrilled.

6. Subscribe to their newsletter.

As well as helping the small business, you get something interesting to read too. (If you’d like to subscribe to mine, it’s here.)

7. Subscribe to their You Tube.

Watch and like their videos and comment. You Tube videos can help provide another income stream for the small business – but they need enough viewing hours and followers to get monetised. Many of the smaller accounts don’t earn a bean for the adverts that are shown on their videos. Mine is here.

8. Send a personal message.

It’s always lovely to receive something positive, and could really make the recipients day. Something that is quotable is handy for their promotional work.

9. Get their books and other publications from the library.

This is free for you, helps to promote their work, and earns the author a small fee each time. Every year in the UK, they receive a bonus from the British Library Public Lending Rights – there may be a similar scheme where you are too. More info about PLR here.

10. Help to promote their events.

Even if you can’t participate yourself, sharing events, workshops, talks, open days, etc help to promote them to a wider audience. This could include sharing flyers, putting a poster up, and telling your family and friends, as well as online sharing. You might not want to, or be able to, attend the cake making workshop, but commenting, liking and sharing the post about it online may mean that someone else will see it and sign up.

Five ways to help support small businesses for a little money

 

1. Try to buy some things from small businesses.

It may not be possible to get all of your shopping from local independent businesses. Instead, if possible try to buy a few things – birthday card or gift, a special cake, a massage. Each purchase makes a difference to that tiny business.

2. Use cash.

If you’re shopping locally (rather than online), using cash makes a big difference for small businesses. Those card machines are convenient but charge a percentage of all sales, so using cash means that the business receives the full amount.

3. Buy via their own online shop/website.

If it is possible to buy directly from the small business, they will receive more from the sale than if bought via a large online marketplace. You will get a more personal service too.

4. Subscribe to paid newsletters and membership programmes.

These usually offer extras with the subscriptions – including special offers, recipes, tutorials, etc – and can help create a regular income stream. Even a small income stream is useful: it all adds up. Show appreciation by making a small donation (mine is here).

5. Pre-order their book.

Pre-orders are very important for authors these days. They tell the book shops and online stores that the book is worth selling. So if you’re planning to buy a book, pre-ordering helps a lot.

Also….!

 

Always pay on time. Delayed payments can mean small businesses going into debt or struggling to pay bills, it has a far greater impact on individuals than large companies – yet strangely it’s often the smaller businesses that are left chasing up invoices.

Don’t try to get them to work for free. For some peculiar reason, some people seem to think that small businesses do not have the same expenses and needs as everyone else and can somehow work for free. You can’t pay the rent or bills with “exposure”.