08/28/2026
Can we have an honest conversation about the vicious cycle happening in our community?
Every day, I see people looking for jobs. At the same time, I see small-business owners (myself included) who desperately need help—but cannot afford to hire anyone because the cost of owning a business has become astronomical, while fewer people are shopping small, booking local services or willing to pay the prices small businesses must charge to survive!
When small businesses lose customers, we cut staff. When we cut staff, fewer local jobs are available. We, as owners take on the work of several employees, service becomes harder to provide, hours get reduced and eventually some businesses close altogether.
Then the community loses both a local business (hey.. anyone know what happened to such and such business? Yeah! It didn’t get its community’s support…) and potential jobs.
Families are struggling, and I understand that completely. But if we want more local jobs, we must also support the small businesses capable of creating them!!
Shopping small isn’t only about helping a business owner. It keeps money in the community, helps pay local employees and makes future jobs possible.
We cannot ask where all the jobs have gone while overlooking the small businesses that once provided them.
Local businesses need their communities—and communities need their local businesses. We survive together, or we disappear one by one.
-Shared from a friend who is a Small Business Owner and Supporter
