Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jaquelyn Rieke, who is the founder of Nutty Steph’s and Onion River Campground.
[I] love being a business owner in Vermont — and indeed living here — because of the people. Communities come together to support one another, and we are surrounded by beautiful landscapes and historic villages. Vermont is a small business state, and I hope it always will be. I believe it’s a major part of what makes Vermont unique and an attractive place to live and visit.
Small Business Saturday is coming up on Nov. 24, and businesses throughout Vermont will be kicking off the holiday season. This year, shoppers can find Nutty Steph’s, along with hundreds of small businesses throughout the country, on the Shop Your Values website. Shop Your Values is a nationally coordinated effort with all Main Street Alliance chapters to feature small businesses nationwide, tell their stories and bring people together around our shared values.
Small businesses are often referred to as “the engines of our economy.” What does that mean for us here in Vermont? Vermont’s small businesses employ a significant percentage of the workforce. According to the Vermont Department of Labor, 90 percent of businesses in Vermont have fewer than 20 employees and 62 percent of workers are employed by a business with fewer than 100 employees. A study conducted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found that local, independent businesses returned more than three times as much money to the local economy per dollar than a big box chain and donated more than four times as much in charitable contributions, relative to overall sales, than one of the more popular big box stores included in the research.
As a small business owner, I rely on the health and wellbeing of my employees and community members to stay open, and I hear from customers that they, too, share a mutual appreciation for the culture and value small businesses bring to our communities. We think of our employees like family, and we strive to create high-paying jobs and offer benefit packages to support them, even though we may be working more hours or taking from our own salary to do so.
Small business owners in Vermont rely on the holidays and peak seasons to get through the off-season when sales are low. It’s not always possible to do all of our shopping in local stores, but our communities could benefit tremendously if we spread out our spending to include Vermont’s small businesses. This is a time to think about our hard-earned dollars and how our spending choices can support our local economy and the values we share as business owners, workers, family members and neighbors.
