Small Business Saturday
Small Business Saturday! What does that really mean?
Here's a photo from my office right now; I thought about trying to clean it up, but I wanted to show you the reality of working for yourself during the holiday season. Those big boxes to the right contain packing materials & calendars. My shipping station and prints are to the left. I run my whole business out on this room, in a small 3 bedroom house I live in with my girlfriend and our dog & cat.
Many of my friends also own their own business. Some employ over a dozen people, some work together as husband & wife, and some are doing it by themselves. But the uniting thing is that we're doing it on our own. There's no corporation subsidizing us; we're doing this for ourselves. And it's a ton of work. There's endless social media posts like this, creating & making new work, promoting it, selling it, and doing it all over again. It's exhausting, and everyone gets burned out and cranky this time of year. We're trying to force holiday cheer into our blog & Instagram posts when really we just want the madness to be over.
So why do we do it?
Because we love it. Because we love the freedom, the joy, and the independence. The thrill that comes from the first time you make something, work up the courage to put it out into the world, and see someone buy it from you. We're all lucky, so very lucky, to be able to support ourselves, families, and even entire workforces doing what we love.
But we couldn't do any of it with you, the people who follow us and buy our work and recognize that shopping from a small business might cost more, but it helps everybody. When you shop small you're buying from your friends and neighbors, and putting money back into the local economy. To everyone who has bought something from a local small business this year, I say "thank you." And I hope you'll continue to do so. We're out here making our own path, and we want you on our team. We couldn't do it without you.
Now, to unpack those boxes. It's gonna be a long weekend.
