Being a small entrepreneur in Quebec has always been a big challenge. Almost 60% of companies close their doors before they are five years old. Even so, entrepreneurship continues to expand and contribute to economic growth: In 2018, small businesses contributed 37.5 % to gross domestic product (GDP) generated by the private sector, while the contribution of medium-sized businesses was 14.4 % for a combined total of 51.9 %. The contribution of large businesses was 48.0 %. As you can see small and medium-sized businesses are actually responsible for more than half the total income of lf of Canadian families.

At the same time, this very expressive segment has been the most affected and most threatened in the last two years due to the pandemic, for not having a working capital capable of sustaining their operations in a scenario of economic crisis.

Despite these hardship, small and medium-sized companies are circumventing the crisis with creative solutions like getting their business online with an e-commerce website and marketing themselves through various social media channels and countless other creative means. At RSMEDIA, we’ve successfully helped numerous small businesses survive through various methods. One way is by effectively devising a marketing campaign through these channels that surprisingly requires a relatively modest marketing budget, Our clients can pinpoint their target audience in a very cost effective manner. And in today’s context it’s literally been a blessing to many small businesses and ensured their survival.

But many local legendary and beloved small businesses didn’t survive the last couple of years and this has caused many local consumers to stop and reflect on their consumer habits. Many came to the realization that it’s the small businesses that are the heart and soul of our community. Not the globalist corporations and their shareholders who don’t care about the well being of you or your community. Many consumers are coming around to that realization and have started changing their consumer habits by buying from small family owned businesses because it’s the right thing to do. 

Supporting this process in terms of consumption, so that everyone comes out stronger in these troubled times, is essential.

By consuming products and services from small and medium-sized businesses, we contribute to the support of the families of entrepreneurs and their employees. We also favor the maintenance of jobs and contribute to our local economy. It is a paradigm shift that could change our consumption style, even after this crisis.

Big corporations remain structured to overcome any crisis and are consolidated, with their financial power and political influence, as we saw during the pandemic, they were the only ones allowed to remain open. 

Small and medium-sized businesses are the ones that really impact our communities, neighborhoods and municipalities. They are the ones who, for the most part, employ people from your city, maybe your neighbors, your friends and even your family members. Ultimately, they are literally what makes our economy run.

So the next time you’re looking for a pair of shoes or craving a good meal, Why not order online from a local business and help keep them alive. I guarantee you that they will appreciate it more because for them, each sale contributes to their survival.

In this way, you become part of the ecosystem that makes our economy run and is responsible for supporting the workers of that business and their families. People who, in turn, buy their children’s school supplies at the nearby stationery store, who use the restaurant next door, who buy their produce from a farm in the same region, keeping the economic movement linked to the place where we are located. Reiterating the obvious, you can never do too much (especially in the context of recent pandemic times) to reinforce simple gestures and consumer habits that support sall businesses, micro entrepreneurs and the self-employed, not only during the pandemic but even after the crisis is over:

Here are a few simple things you can do to help our local small business:

• Promote and recommend small entrepreneurs on social networks.
• Engage in the social networks of micro and small businesses
• Positively rate small businesses in digital channels and brand reputation services.
• Continuing to purchase products and services from the same businesses
• Be understanding that the hiring clout of small businesses and self-employed professionals is limited, without forgetting how much they dedicate themselves to the quality of each product or service.
• Finally, realizing our strength in the consumption process in relation to small businesses in this moment of economic downturn, is a form of contribution fundamental to the community.

Supporting small businesses is not just some sentimental romantic notion.

As previously mentioned, they account for more than half of Canada’s GDP and their survival is crucial to our economical survival. The next time you’re thinking of going to a big box store to buy something so you can save a couple of dollars (if that). Remember their faceless shareholders will be thrilled you did so. They can now buy another yacht while your son’s soccer coach’s business just went bankrupt. Who do you think contributes more to your community? The faceless shareholding yacht owner who doesn’t even live in your community? Or the local shoe store owner who coaches little league soccer and whose wife volunteers at the local old folks home?

Putting this concept into practice is essential to sustaining the economy, for all of us. It’s a simple matter of decision and attitude that is capable of producing a significant change in the lives of many people – including ours.