With Lisa Wisdom from Style With Wisdom
Lisa is the stylist behind Style with Wisdom, offering a number of services from how to make the most of your existing wardrobe, personal shopping to avoid impulse buys, building your style and body confidence, and how to rework your style after a lifestyle or body shape change. A majority of Lisa’s business pre-COVID was working with groups of clients at one time or one on one services, however throughout lockdown Lisa has had to work to adapt her services to be more virtual! Lisa is here to tell us the importance of shopping small, more so now than ever!
COVID has without doubt had a negative impact upon us all in some form or another but if there is one huge positive I would draw from it, it has to be the great support and backing of small business that has arisen! It’s like everyone has woken up and discovered small businesses for the first time and social media has been flooded with the “support small” and “shop independent” message, encouraging us all to think outside the box and avoid the oh so tempting “swipe to buy” from you know who!
The great thing about small businesses is their amazing ability to adapt to a changing environment and if anything has put them to the test COVID certainly has. Small businesses have had their doors forced closed or certain services halted due to the safety measures put in place by the Government. However, the brains behind small businesses have reacted fast! I have seen websites updated or launched, click and collect introduced, shopping of shop windows with QR codes, one to one services switching to virtual services overnight, workshops moving to zoom and cocktail ingredients delivered to your door! The innovative ideas and creativity that has been born out of COVID by small businesses has overwhelmed and amazed me and it is this quick thinking that has made me stop and listen and want to support the little guys, including myself! If you fail to support small businesses then they will simply fail to exist.
So, here I am sharing with you just a handful of reasons why you should consider shopping small going forward:
Personal Service
When a small business owner receives an order or booking, they literally do a happy dance at the thought that their business has been selected from the overwhelming choice normally offered and they know how to share their gratitude! You can guarantee that the customer service offered will be exceptional with consideration to detail. With every small business product or service I have bought it has always come with a hand written personalised note. It is small things like this that makes me realise I have parted with my money wisely and am highly likely to return! I always keep the notes too as they make you feel like such a special customer and not just an order number! When you receive this kind of service or attention to detail it do realise how important it really is! Every customer should feel valued!
Unique Offering
When you invest in a small business then you are more likely investing in them as a person so you the product or service is likely to be unique to them, for you! This means you yourself are likely to experience something really new or if gifting a product or service from a small business it is likely the receiver would have never considered buying it for themselves before and less chance of it being a duplicated gift! We all love to have something a little different from the norm now and this is the perfect opportunity to do just that and then share the story behind it! It is a great way to advertise a small business and introduce people to a small business they may have not known existed!
Kind to the Environment
Alongside the huge support for Small Businesses right now there is the conscious decision people now want to take to be more sustainable in their lifestyle choices and purchasing decisions. We want to know that in the making of products or services provided, the environment as been at the forefront of the business owners mind. Whether it is the careful selection of ingredients and packaging used or the message they are sharing to raise awareness and change the damage to our environment, it all counts, consumers want to know they are investing in the environment when they invest in a small business. Small businesses, in their ability to be innovative and be adaptable, means they can be more conscious and active to work in a sustainable manner! Small businesses tend to ensure they have reduced waste and usually offer “made to order” as opposed to surplus stock, fundamental to the clothing world when we want to reduce fast fashion!
The Heart of your Local Community
It’s so important to support the small guys to keep the community spirit alive! Without the small independents on your high street it will eventually be an empty high street! Small businesses create the demand for local market stalls and pop up shops, where you can buy unique pieces and get fantastic personal service. Without your support these local community events will cease to take place. Supporting small businesses ensures they can financially exist on our high street and local stalls, which is critical right now as the high street really needs us! If you want to invest in your local community then investing in your local small businesses is a great start!
Encourages Growth and an Innovative Community
Supporting small within your local community also encourages it to thrive and grow, therefore potentially leading to further small business launches which is great for the local economy! Successful small business owners may take new business owners under their wing and this is when networking groups such as Buzz Hub Co is so important in pulling small businesses together to share skill and ensure small businesses can be as successful as they can! By growing small businesses in the local community it creates a unique offering to other areas!
I could actually go on and on about the importance of shopping small but these are absolutely the key things to think about if you are still considering whether to “shop small”! Whenever we depart with our well earned cash we always want to ensure we are going to get value for money, great service and good quality. Small Businesses put this at the top of their agenda and should they fail in providing this in any way they usually want to know so they can quickly put it right! Now, that in itself is good customer service!
“Small Choices make a huge difference” Holly Tucker