The Sky Is Falling

We all remember the story about Chicken Little and the infamous acorn on the head that became a piece of the sky and quickly turned into a disastrous outlook on life.

How many of us are guilty of the same ‘falling sky’ mentality? How many of us are too ensconced in all the negative talk about the economy, the environment and the selling out of America by our elected politicians to have a positive outlook on our lives (both personal and business)?

I have always believed that you make your own economy, you chart your own course and you set your own sails. One of my mentors, Jim Rohn, said it best when he said ‘not to wish that it were easier, but to wish that you were better’.

So many of us are complaining about the state of the economy in our own county without really understanding that it is what we have made it by our own choices. It doesn’t have to be that way. When we are all trying our best to make a living here locally we should be helping the other guy make a living locally also. I think that every elected official and anyone that gets a paycheck based on the tax dollars of our local citizens should have to purchase everything locally unless they can’t find what they need here.

Ridiculous you scream!? I don’t think so. We pay taxes so that our city and county officials can have a job. Many of our local merchants work all the time just to make ends meet and then are slapped in the face by the very people that their taxes are used to pay when that money is spent with a merchant outside of their respective cities and county that they serve. What is wrong with this picture?

Everyone is screaming that the economy in our local communities has really dipped. Really? What would happen if everyone that relied on the taxes produced by the local economy had to spend their paychecks in the same local economy that supported them? Did you know that for every dollar spent in a locally owned independent store 68 cents returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures? If you spend that in a national chain, only 43 cents stays local and if you spend it online or outside of your area NOTHING comes home. Try taking 68 cents out of every dollar out of your paycheck, throw it away and see how long you can have a roof over your head. The same thing happens to local business owners, cities and counties.

Not guilty of spending money outside of the city or county you say? What about that website you had designed by that out of state entity? What about the online office supplies that you are ordering for your city/county office? What about going out for bid and awarding the bid to an out of county contractor when you could have chosen one just as skilled but they were a little higher? What about treating your staff to a retreat or brainstorming session in a great hotel OUTSIDE of your own county. Shame on you!

I try my best to spend my money locally. Granted sometimes the product or the service that I buy may be a few dollars more than what I would pay outside of my county but I know that my money is being used to help another business owner stay in business.

I think that all public officials should take an oath to not only serve their constituents but to also support their constituents. After all, the local business owners are the first people those same city and county officials look to for donations of space, time, talent and money.

I can’t tell you how many times I have been approached by someone running for office, a team or some other association that wants something for free and then spends money on products or services outside of our county. That’s just not right!

The buck doesn’t stop there. Merchants, if you are asking others to buy from you, you must remember to buy from local merchants also. Your own mantra should be ‘I shop local so that others will shop local’. We must all commit ourselves to spending our money locally whenever we can. I’m not saying that you can’t spend money outside of the county but what I am saying is to make a concerted effort to at least look for that product or service in our county first.

Many of you may be saying, ‘yes, but I just can’t find what I am looking for close to home and I have to go into another county’. I know that may be the case in some instances but let’s face it, have you tried getting a local merchant to order it for you, have you exhausted all your resources to try and fine it locally? If you don’t support the merchants that are here they may not be here much longer.

In defense of our non-local consumers, some “merchants” are guilty of not having the ‘service’ mentality that some of the larger stores have in the bigger cities. They aren’t open when they say they are going to be open and they aren’t willing to work with a customer when it comes to pricing or special orders. The inventory looks as if it has been on the shelves for years and the store is not as clean as it should be. The counter help isn’t as knowledgeable or friendly or even present. There, have I covered it all? Oh wait, one more thing. Their would-be customers don’t even know they exist … because their marketing – or lack of marketing – ‘worked for them 10 years ago and it should still work for them now. After all, EVERYBODY knows they have a store’. These are not the merchants that I am asking you to support. These merchants don’t have a business, they have a hobby. They will be open until the day they decide to start another hobby. I am referring to serious business owners who are doing everything in their power to entice you into doing business with them now and in the future.

Support these local merchants so that we can make our own economy and not have to be concerned with the economy that ‘others’ want to control for us.

Whenever you have a choice --- please shop local!