Simon Nielsen 9/7/22 Simon Nielsen 9/7/22

Five Ways To Address Objections About Shopping Local

Deb Brown and SaveYour.Town highlight five opportunities for local residents and businesses to help create change and share a new mindset on how to think about community.

By Deb Brown and SaveYour.Town

I’ve heard business owners say things like “in this economic climate, it’s hard to get new customers” and “no one has any money to spend, we can’t afford to use new ways to advertise”.

I’ve heard customers say “they never do anything different” and “why should I shop local? I can get a better deal at the big box store?”

These comments are opportunities for local residents and businesses to help create change and share a new mindset on how we think about our community.

Here’s 5 things to consider:

1. Stop saying “in this economic climate” – people are still shopping, traveling, and talking about businesses/places they visit. Start looking at what people want. Where we live, there are more day travelers coming from around the state. What can you provide for them?

2. Don’t spend other people’s money. In other words – don’t prejudge people. You really don’t know what their priorities are and how they want to spend their money. People do have money to spend.

3. New ways to advertise don’t always cost money. They do cost time. Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, blogging can all be done for no cost or almost no cost. You do need to spend time on it to be effective. You wouldn’t just put up a billboard and expect people to flock to your store either. People need to see something 7 times before it sinks in!

4. If you’re not doing anything different, you’re become stale. Rearrange your store, change the windows, use new ads in the paper and on the radio – give people a reason to come visit you.

5. The big box store helps put small, local businesses out of business. Most of your dollars spent at big box stores don’t make their way back to your county/town. 57 cents out of every dollar leaves your community. 66 cents of every dollar spent in your local small businesses, stays local. Local businesses also know you, give much better customer service as a rule, hire people from your neighborhood, pay local taxes, and live where you live.

Simon Nielsen 9/7/22 Simon Nielsen 9/7/22

How Local Leaders And Officials Can Become Venture Capitalists Of New Ideas

“How can you protect your community from failure while being open to new ideas?” Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town answer an essential question.

By Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town

We’re living through a shift in power, to one that is more open to participation by people outside of our formal organization.

For local leaders and officials, it’s hard to imagine how this will work, being more open to ideas from outside the leadership. How you can protect your community from failure while being open to new ideas?

We have a simple way of thinking that can help. Think of yourself as the Venture Capitalists of New Ideas.

What do Venture Capitalists do? A really simple view of it is they find out about as many new ideas as they can, but they don’t invest in them all. They’re more likely to encourage entrepreneurs and help them build their networks than to invest money in their businesses. They only invest in business ideas that are working well in early tests.

You can adapt that mindset:

Find out everything that’s going on, and not just entrepreneurial ideas but all kinds of things people are doing for your community. Publicly ask people what new ideas they’re working on.

Encourage all of them. Help them Build Connections from your extensive network of resources.

And then invest your limited resources only in the ideas that are doing well in testing.

This is freeing for officials. You can refocus how you listen to people.

You become resources for people with ideas, instead of just listening and not being able to act upon it.

Local elected and appointed leaders can learn more practical steps in our video: Idea Friendly Officials and Boards. Learn the Idea Friendly secrets to:

Look at a new way to see your role as an official, one that puts you in the center of the network
Discover your superpower as an official and put your connections to work for you
Turn public gripe sessions into crowdsourcing events that mobilize people into action
Learn the one question that turns even bad ideas into something positive

Simon Nielsen 6/27/22 Simon Nielsen 6/27/22

How Local Businesses Build Empathy, And What That Means For Rural Communities

“Our communities could use more empathy. Doing business with each other can help us build empathy.” Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town see potential in visiting the corner store.

By Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town

I’ve been thinking lately how many large challenges we face as a society that come down to not thinking from other people’s perspectives.

Our communities could use more empathy. Doing business with each other can help us build empathy.

Selling something requires us to think about other people. We have to think about what other people will like, what they will buy. That is thinking from another person’s perspective.

In my years as retail store owner, I remember putting myself in my customers’ place, trying to understand what they might want to buy this week.

Buyers also can potentially improve their empathy when they realize that local sellers offer something that the buyers value enough to purchase. That’s even more important when the buyers and sellers come from different groups, like when a local farmer wanders through the Hispanic grocery and finds something new to try.

Businesses are essential third places where people can connect with each other. Your first place is your home, your second place is your work. Your third places are where you go to be with other people.

Retail businesses can be a third place, too. Ever go to the grocery store to buy 3 things but it took half an hour because you stopped to talk to people? Community happens when people talk to each other!

We’re rebuilding social capital while we’re chatting with friends or with a clerk over our purchase.

That doesn’t happen when people buy online. It has to be in person.

All good reasons why local commerce builds strong communities.

Simon Nielsen 6/22/22 Simon Nielsen 6/22/22

Practical Steps To Overcome Opposition To New Residents

“When you do hear complaints, it’s ok to gently point out that your town is open to everyone. People of all ages, all ethnicities, all backgrounds, all incomes. People who are new in town and people who have been here for generations. Our town is changing all the time because it is a living community of people.” Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town are open to newcomers.

By Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town

Welcoming new residents means dealing with those members of your community who are not so open to new people moving in.

Practical step 1: Magnify stories of people being welcoming

Because it’s uncomfortable when you hear complaints about new residents moving in, you remember it.

You don’t remember the thousand and one ways local people are being welcoming, because you never see most of them.

The woman who makes cookies for her new neighbor’s kids.

The man who stops to help someone carry their heavy moving boxes.

The people who go out of their way to invite a newcomer to an event, then stop by to pick them up.

When you do hear those stories, magnify them. Make sure everyone knows it’s normal and expected to welcome new people.

Practical step 2: Hold well-publicized welcome events

Another way to make sure everyone knows it’s normal and expected to welcome new people, is to hold welcome events for newcomers and publicize them.

Bennettsville, South Carolina, hosted regular gatherings of newcomers to learn more about them, and for the new residents to learn more about Bennettsville.

Officials answered questions like what to do with bulky garbage, how the electric bill works and how to submit articles to the local paper.

New residents shared their stories. They found places where they could volunteer and heard ideas about helping the downtown.

The secret to gathering the newcomers was to have the real estate agents who sold houses to them personally invite them. They could also ask the city to invite people who made new utility deposits, or check with the library so they can invite people who recently applied for a library card. Brainstorm more ways to find your own new residents.

When you hear complaints

When you do hear complaints, it’s ok to gently point out that your town is open to everyone. People of all ages, all ethnicities, all backgrounds, all incomes. People who are new in town and people who have been here for generations.

Our town is changing all the time because it is a living community of people.

And new people in your town are part of the change. They bring with them new ways of doing things, and new ideas.

We are valuing the people who are here now. Together, we’re creating the town we want to live in, one small step at a time.

Simon Nielsen 5/24/22 Simon Nielsen 5/24/22

We Gave Up Planning The Old Way

“This project has ended up looking nothing like a written plan would’ve looked. That stodgy plan would’ve tied our hands and not allowed for changes midstream. It would’ve died by committee.“ Deb Brown, small town advocate and community activator, tells the story of a community project taking off before planning could bring it down.

By Deb Brown and SaveYour.Town

My small town hosted an international photojournalist, Brendan Hoffman, in residency at the local paper.

A town of 8,000 people managed to take a 6 week free class on Using Photography to Tell Your Stories, view an exhibition of War In Ukraine, and personally visit with the photographer and share ideas for stories in the community.

The Old Way

I bet you believe we had a ton of meetings, had to fund raise to bring this man in from the Ukraine and host him for two months, and spend lots of money on exhibition space and marketing as well. It would be the same ten people who would write the plan, and there would be no room for change in the plan.

If we’d written a formal plan, that is exactly what would’ve happened. We would’ve had to reach out to the city officials to get permission to bring him to town. The meetings would’ve taken a year to figure how to fund raise, where to put him, what location could the exhibit be at, how would we help pay him to be in residency at the paper, and how to get the exhibit shipped here from another country. We would’ve needed committees: marketing, advertising, housing, fundraising, location and more.

That would’ve been the old way to plan for this kind of a big deal. By the time everything had been handled, many folks would’ve dropped out and been frustrated. Too much red tape.

The Idea Friendly Way

However, that’s not how we did it. We used the Idea Friendly Method.

Brendan Hoffman and I had stayed in touch via email since 2013. He visited once in 2015 and we had organized a photo walk that time. He told me he wanted to come back, and he’d like to have a residency at the paper.

I pulled my crowd together. The editor at the newspaper, the president of the adult education workshops group, and me. We knew this would be a great opportunity for our town. How could we make it happen? Grants, donations, marketing. The ideas began to flow.

We needed Brendan to help us Build Connections. He had applied for two grants that he received, and he shared another one we could apply to. He also wanted to teach a 6 week course on using photography to tell your story. These conversations happened mostly online via email, Facebook messenger and texting. He lives in Ukraine and he can’t just stop over! It was a bit chaotic, but we figured it out.

Then we took small steps. We didn’t need to get permission from the city. Often you think you do, but just as often you really don’t. The Freeman Journal newspaper wrote the Facebook Journalism Grant request and they got it! We added an Embedded Community Experience to the project to do more outreach to minorities and youth. Legacy Learning Boone River Valley (adult education) created the photography workshop. They spread the word and over 30 people showed up for that.

Once Brendan was here, our crowd thought it would be nice to add an exhibition of his work. There was grant money, and several of us chipped in to get his work shipped here. A friend of ours had an empty storefront he let us use for one week. All we had to do was ask him. We’re a small town! Asking often works.

The exhibition was well attended by locals, and out of towners. The week before the exhibition was scheduled to open, we decided we should have an Opening Reception. Volunteers were called and cookies were made! A local church gave us chairs to use. Hy-Vee donated wine. Mornin’ Glory donated coffee. It was a nice addition to the first night of the exhibit. In fact it was a lot of fun and people learned about Ukraine and war with Russia in a manner better than any lecture.

The last week, we decided to do a closing reception too! Again, folks had ideas, and just donated their time, gifts and products. All of us used local ways to get the word out, and social media and the newspaper. Because the first reception was talked about, the ending reception was great too.

This project has ended up looking nothing like a written plan would’ve looked. That stodgy plan would’ve tied our hands and not allowed for changes midstream. It would’ve died by committee.

The biggest takeaway is we did write a plan. AFTER the event was over.

We shared the steps we all took, we were able to talk about what worked well and what didn’t work at all. It was no longer a wish that we could do this. It was a fact we completed it. This is a plan that others can look at, learn from and try something on their own knowing that it will involve more people taking small meaningful steps. It will be chaotic, and that’s ok. And it’s more fun to create good things on the fly!

Five Ways To Address Objections About Shopping Local

How Local Leaders And Officials Can Become Venture Capitalists Of New Ideas

How Local Businesses Build Empathy, And What That Means For Rural Communities

Practical Steps To Overcome Opposition To New Residents

Practical step 1: Magnify stories of people being welcoming

Practical step 2: Hold well-publicized welcome events

When you hear complaints

We Gave Up Planning The Old Way

The Old Way

The Idea Friendly Way

The Empty Square