One thing I'm trying to do while growing this business is to buy goods and services from other local businesses whenever possible. It's pretty well established that money spent with locally-based businesses puts more money into local economies than money spent at national chains.
I've preached Localism for over fifteen years, sometimes to a fault, Here in Ahwatukee it can be hard to practice, especially since a lot of the would-be local businesses seem to be outside our urban village limits. Maybe that's just the relatively short time I've lived here, but as I drive through our commercial areas I see mostly Big Boxes.
In my line of work part of keeping local is a no-brainer. I work with veterinarians by neccessity, and with the exception of a certain national chain that will remain nameless here, vets tend to be locals. I'm not going to exclude a certain veterinary practice in Elliot Park from my service area just because it's part of that national chain, but I'm focusing on the neighborhood-based clinics.
I didn't do so well on this front yesterday: I had flyers to print, and took advantage of KinkEx's online printing services instead of taking my flyers over to a neighborhood copy shop. The truth is, it was a lot more convenient and efficient - I uploaded the files, paid by credit card, and picked them up when I was in the area. The nature of this particular service will set a high barrier to entry for smaller, independent copy centers - at least for a while.
To make up for it, I'm taking my Applied Laziness experiment over to Laloo's this morning and pump some local dollars into a local croissant and coffee.
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