As a small business, we are BIG fans of supporting small businesses at any time of year, but especially at Christmas! Here are our top 5 reasons that we think you should shop small this festive season...
1-QUALITY
Everyone loves to get a handmade, personalised gift. Sure, generic mass-produced items from retail giants have their place, but you really can't beat a thoughtful, high quality gift made just for the recipient, by a real person's hands. We've personally spent years chasing millimetres, sourcing the perfect colours and perfecting our techniques to ensure that our items are of the highest quality. You simply don't get that sort of attention to detail with mass-produced items.
2- PEOPLE
We employ a team of lovely local people, and as a Living Wage employer, we pay them a fair wage in a part of the country notorious for low pay. By supporting a small business, you are paying towards their children's guitar lessons, maths tuition and in some cases, putting food on their tables. The people behind small businesses are the backbone and they work their socks off. Our staff have worked for us for many years and they love their jobs, their loyalty to our business goes above and beyond.
3- COMMUNITY
Shopping small doesn't just benefit the small business, but it also benefits their local community. Whether that's employing local people, fundraising for the local community or the ripple effect on other local businesses. As a small business, we use local suppliers and other small businesses as much as possible. At Christmas, we thank our local posties with gift vouchers we've purchased from other local businesses, spreading the small business love even more in our community. We fundraise to support local charities, we even bought a public access defibrillator for our local community. We donate to the local foodbank and we give our offcuts to a local nursing home and nurseries for crafting.
4- USE THEM OR LOSE THEM!
The last 2 years have been like no other, and many small businesses simply have not been able to keep going. Shop small to help the businesses you love to keep doing what they love, or one day they might not be there.
5- WARM FUZZY FEELS
Supporting a small business can give you the warm fuzzy feels, knowing that you've done a good thing and supported a small business makes you feel good too!