It is the beginning of Small Business Week. You hear me remind you to shop locally every evening when I sign off, but it is so vitally important to trade as oten as possible with our locally owned small businesses. If you need reasons to do so, here is some light reading from Forbes:
Why Shopping Small Makes A Big Impact
Beyond this holiday season, we all should make a conscious effort to contribute to building a brighter and better world and support small-business owners throughout the year.
• Preserving local character: Small businesses are integral to the fabric of local communities and infuse more than just economic value. They bring a distinctive flavor that goes beyond monetary benefits, including creating jobs, sponsoring local events and contributing to the unique character of neighborhoods. For instance, there’s no substitute for the local bookstore that hosts community events or the corner café that remembers how you like your latte.
• Environmentally friendly: Local businesses often have a smaller carbon footprint. Typically, they source goods locally, reducing transportation emissions, and since they’re smaller, they consume fewer resources and produce less waste.
And if that weren’t enough reasons to shop small, consider this: Small, locally owned businesses are employing our friends, neighbors and in a lot of cases, our family members. Plus, just in the Cedar Valley alone, we are fortunate to have an incredible selection of unique and fun shops to browse through. Shop local – we all win.
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We start Children’s Book Week today, and I am so thankful that I developed my love for reading at a very young age. I am still a voracious reader, and I do trace it to a few things… first, the folks getting me my favorite Little Golden Books (which are posted here:)
I also nurtured my love for reading during elementary school, as I saved my money to make some awesome purchases during the Schoolastic Book Fair. I remember looking forward to getting the catalog and marking each book I needed, then waiting as patiently as possible for the day that the books arrived. Now, I love going through the book stores finding treasures that have to do with music history, biographies and my favorite topic – Trains and railroading. I have been known to binge watch television shows, and my DVD collection of my favorite movies ( Animal House, The Godfather, etc.) is pretty impressive .. at least to me .. but there is still nothing that can compare to soaking in a hot bubble bath with a glass of Diet Doctor Pepper and losing myself within the pages of a great book.
