Don't support independent businesses

You may think I’m a terrible person for saying this, but…

I don't want to support independent businesses during the Covid crisis. Despite calls to 'shop local' and help the little guys.

I should explain...

I've been a founder and owner of several small independent businesses. My first was a bookshop in my home town in the north of England.

Also, most of my coaching work is with owners of independent creative businesses.

So why don't I want to support independent businesses?

Because I don't like the implications of the word "support".

Whether it's the owners saying "support us".

Or consumers deciding to "support" independent enterprises.

Because "support" implies a kind of charity. Benevolence. Helping out.

Ultimately, businesses only survive by creating win-wins. Undertaking transactions in an equal relationship with customers. By providing real value for money.

For a business to rely on 'support' is not financially sustainable.

Customers will tire of buying out of a sense of duty or obligation.

The truth is, I DO spend money with independent businesses.

But not because I want to 'support' them.

I buy from them because they give me VALUE.

That might be:

- The friendliness of a local cafe or pub.

- The reassurance of dealing with the actual business owner.

- The community I become part of because I'm a customer.

- A feeling that I'm important to the business as an individual.

Talking about supporting independent businesses touches a nerve with me.

Because in my first business we asked people to 'support' our bookshop. It makes me cringe now. Because it's the wrong approach.

Asking for support is about appealing to people's "ought to" not their "want to". It's about the customer helping out the business. It's one-sided.

Guilt-tripping customers into buying isn't a sustainable business model.

So we learnt we had to be the best bookshop in town. To sell the books people wanted. To respond to customers' needs. To provide a friendly service.

We got to know customers and recommended suitable books to them. Not by algorithm, but because we knew them as people. And they loved it.

Then we deserved their ongoing custom.

And customers kept on coming. Not because they wanted to support us. Not because they 'ought to'. But because it was in their interests to buy from us.

The most successful independent businesses offer value that corporations and chains cannot.

They use the advantage of their smallness to connect better with customers. To discover what they value, then give it to them in heaps. They show their unique personality.

In this way, independent businesses can outmanoeuvre bigger competitors.

So let's not support independent businesses.

Let's give them our money for the value we get in return.

Any thoughts?