If you are wanting to help boost the economy the best thing that you can do is buy from small, local businesses. This may seem like a trivial act in light of the current economic crisis; I assure you it is not.

Compared to multi-million/billion dollar companies, local businesses are by many viewed as a novelty rather than a commodity–it is in this realm that locally owned business are a “quaint” reminder of the past. They serve to bring about those nostalgic memories of our grandmothers or even great-grandmothers. Unfortunately, for local businesses the “quaint” is also viewed as being unimportant to the “big picture” and thus, dispensable. Yet, like many of our grandmothers (and great-grandmothers) small, local businesses are surprisingly wily, strong, and resilient and offer valuable contributions to the community.

What is important with regard to this topic is that small, local businesses strengthen the local economy. A study in Austin, TX showed that for every $100 in consumer spending at a national chain bookstore the local economic impact was $13. The same amount spent at locally based bookstores yielded $45, or more than three times the local economic impact. Another study done in Maine showed that locally owned businesses spent 44.6 percent of their revenue within the surrounding two counties. Conversely, larger corporations returned an estimated 14.1 percent of their revenue to the local economy, mostly as payroll. The rest leaves the state. Finally, studies tell us that small firms give to charity an average of more than two and a half times the amount per employee than do medium or large firms (small firms give $789 per employee, medium-sized firms $172, and large firms $334).

This is just a taste of the benefits of supporting small, local businesses. So please if you are going to go out there and spend money, please do it at a small local business.

**Statistical information within in this post was gathered from the following sources: http://www.civiceconomics.com/Andersonville/html/reports.html
www.newrules.org/retail/midcoaststudy.pdf

http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/wmtstudy.pdf

**In the spirit of full disclosure the folks running this site are small business owners. (http://www.vigilanteweb.com and http://jessieandanne.etsy.com)