5 Reasons Your Dollars Are Best Spent Locally

5) About $0.68 of every dollar spent locally gets reinvested in your community. This isn't just about keeping money in the same spot. It's about making that money the most effective. When you spend your money inside of your community, it creates an economic synergy. You decide what businesses survive with your hard earned dollars.

4) You create a better place to live. Towns thriving with local, small businesses are just more interesting, culturally vibrant places to live. No one wants to live in a city dominated by national chains and big box stores. Ironically, if you want more variety and specialty options, think smaller. Not bigger.

3) Local businesses have to serve their communities well. They literally can't afford to offer a bad product or a substandard service. They don't have big, fancy marketing budgets to make up for it. So, every dollar and every customer counts. Most small businesses literally have their name on their buildings, so it's their reputation that's at stake, not just the bottom line.

2) Your dollar spent locally buys you access to real people, not a customer service line. Small business owners are passionate about what they do, so they are your best source of expert information on the subject. You don't have to worry about your call or your concern being outsourced to an overseas center. Chances are you'll be speaking to a knowledgable business owner or employee when you shop locally.

1) Your dollar directly influences a life, not a logo. There is a person and a family behind every small business. What's more, 2 out of every 3 new jobs have been created by small businesses since 2014. So your dollar creates local jobs for other people in your community. Spending your dollar locally is the best investment you can make in your neighbor's life.

-James