Is your business spending with small, regional suppliers?

The untapped opportunity the business community has to support the recovery and growth of small economies.

There's a lot of talk in the bushfire recovery efforts now about buying from small, regional businesses. Largely this talk points towards consumer spend. But what about business dollars? Have you thought about the way in which your business (or the business you work for) supports the local economy, particularly the mum and dad businesses?

If you live in the regions chances are most of your businesses are of the mum and dad variety. While major, government funded infrastructure projects will set targets surrounding expenditure for larger contractors who will invariably win the tenders, there are still many opportunities that businesses already located in the regions can apply - and city based businesses can also explore through the recovery effort and beyond.

Some ideas follow:

• Many local Councils have procurement policies which facilitate work for small business. Does your company have such arrangements? Is this something you can lobby for? Set a target an run towards it. Who knows - your customers and stakeholders may even be impressed and inspired.
• Whether you have such procurement policies in place or not - know which smaller suppliers you can spend your discretionary budget with. These could range from cleaners to car detailers, caterers to venue owners. Let's not forget small consultancy and research services, facilitators and coaches.
• Events - have a team building event, awards night, company function or expo coming up? The regions are open for business and ready to take your booking. Yes - 5 star hotels with all of the trimmings are nice but does this still impress or is it just more of the same? In a world that's looking to support the movement of local you might find this is a much more creative way to wow your audience (and who knows, you may even find it to be more cost effective).
• Donations - from workplace giving to fundraising efforts, where is your money going? Chances are small business owners were impacted in the bushfires as well - the more locally your money can be donated, the more likely it is to have an impact.
• Prizes and staff incentives - you guessed it, small is a great option here. Whether you're shouting a dinner, weekend away or meaningful gift small business has all of this sewn up for you.
• Internal promotion - How can you promote small business within your organisation? Perhaps these opportunities could extend beyond a card swap - do you have capacity to partner your staff with small businesses in a mentoring capacity? Can you invite small business owners to networking events or social events?
• Education - But it's difficult to work with small business ! I often hear people lament. And it's true, numerous small businesses are not as yet equipped to provide even the simplest e-payment, can be difficult to find and may have glitches with fast and efficient customer management processes. SO ENABLE THEM ! You wouldn't believe how many businesses I've pointed in the direction of facilities like Square for e-payments who have then been able to enter our somewhat cashless society. It's not that hard to help.

Even as a self-employed small business I've always been keenly aware of the power of my spend. My bookkeeper (a small business owner) measured my spend by local and social enterprise. It was a very powerful way to ensure I was living my values of spending $$ with small business. Let's bust the myth of small being more expensive right here - often it's simply not.

I carried this ethos to my work with Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast inventing an annual symposium which has been held in small towns in my region since 2017. Why? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the instant benefits when an audience of 180 visits a little town and the spend is concentrated locally. When hosting these events we dig in to the local community identifying ways in which we can spend locally from food to entertainment to accommodation and even things like prizes.

My favourite symposium element is the lunch where event participants choose a token and visit a local cafe during the lunch break. Even though the venue didn't enable that feature in last year's event, our caterer (a small business) still sourced produce throughout the local region providing a delectable feast for all.

On prizes - It beats me why we would buy gift vouchers from xyz large organisation when there's an exceptional, independently owned book store (insert any type of small business), just waiting for our order.

Even though you may not be able to dedicate 100% of your business spend (or personal spend for that matter) to small you'll never truly understand the difference you can make until you give it a go. My best recommendation - grab some cash and take it to a little supplier, witness the look on their face as you spend it with them, know that money is going to put food on someone's table - food that is most likely also purchased in the local economy. Take that thought and apply it to one, two, three things in your company and watch it grow.

You have more power to influence the growth, and recovery of small communities than you realise. It starts with your commitment to spend with small.

Kerry Grace is a community engagement practitioner currently leading a regional development organisation in NSW Australia and managing her own company Evolve Group Network.

Kerry’s work focuses on sustaining small, regional communities. She regularly blurts words about life in regional Australia, accidental leadership, being a mum in business, self-care and adapting for an uncertain future. www.kerrygrace.com.au

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