Support Local or Else, Charlotte entrepreneurs warn community
We’ve talked about how you can help support local businesses while social distancing, like buying gift cards and ordering takeout.
We showed a behind-the-scenes glance at what local businesses are facing, like letting go of most of their employees or postponing opening a new store.
Corri Smith and Garrett Tichy took it a step further.
Enter Support Local or Else (SLOE), a website dedicated to showcasing local businesses, deals and how to support them. Smith, founder of PR and marketing consultancy Black Wednesday, and Tichy, owner of Hygge coworking and co-owner of That’s Novel Books, created the site as a free way for local businesses to engage with people to garner support.
“I have been stressed to the max, and I know I’m in good company,” Smith said. “Black Wednesday has lost clients, restaurants are shutting down, stores are closing. Small businesses are suffering.”
Smith said she first came up with the idea over the weekend. The name was chosen as “or else” because it has “historically been a threat, or a bad omen, meaning there will be consequences, and it’s true,” Smith said. “I, myself have a sort of offbeat character, as does Black Wednesday; so it’s a little dark, but it’s real.
“Everyone has been in his/her own crisis mode and operating in their own silos. I was trying to come up with a way to bring things into one place so people could get a bigger picture of how to help,” she said.
Promotion, deal or way to support
Local businesses can submit a form through the site to be listed as soon as it’s received. All that’s required is that the business have a promotion, deal or way for people to support them remotely or in the future.
Smith teamed up with Tichy, her good friend, as soon as she came up with the idea on Sunday.
“I asked [Tichy] his recommendation on how to build a site. No questions asked, he had a site up within a few hours,” Smith said. “We’ve been working diligently to spread the word and, more tediously, upload the listings as they come in.”
“I like to move quickly when there’s an opportunity to do something impactful and when it’s working alongside awesome people,” Tichy said. “I’ve known Corri a long time, and she has an incredible track record for executing at 100%, so partnering up was an easy decision. Then, considering everything that’s happening, it seemed like the least we could do to support a ton of businesses through this.”
“We want this to be as robust as possible during a time when they/we/I need all the support they/we/I can get,” Smith said. “We already have brands like Sycamore, Girl Tribe, Bardo, Glory Days Apparel and UpDog Kombucha listed, with more coming in.”
Smith said local businesses are being affected by more than just a loss of sales.
“They are laying off staff, pushing loyal team members into their own dilemmas; they may lose those people forever,” she said.
On top of that, businesses will lose money, not just projected revenue, while still covering overhead costs.
“They are losing whatever savings they have, having to use liquid funds or worse, loans to backfill their resources,” Smith said. “Some businesses will close entirely, especially newer ones that haven’t hit their sweet spot of business operations and revenue-building to have funds to endure the loss of a business.”
She warns that these small businesses will feel the effects for the next 12-18 months and beyond.
So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I’m grateful that people care, appreciate it and are actually using it as a resource,” Tichy said. “Building a thing isn’t difficult, but getting people to engage it can be challenging. Turns out, people are using it, which is huge.”
“Most small businesses are operating at a marketing budget of $0, so to have an additional platform in SLOE to point to them is helpful,” Smith said. “We are seeing lots of submissions, lots of traffic on the site and businesses telling us they are making money off the site. It’s so so so exciting.”
Local businesses agree.
‘What a great reminder ... that we want to support small’
“I am thrilled to see the new initiative Support Local Or Else. What a great reminder to us all that we want to support small organizations and businesses in our own city as we navigate this uncharted territory,” said Beth Bell, executive director of Fashion & Compassion.
“We signed up as soon as we heard about SLOE to help get the word out about our mission. We help vulnerable women in Charlotte and around the world get back on track through economic mobility, healing and connection to resources. It’s more important than ever for us to come together as a community and help the underserved, as they will be disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus and economic hardships,” Bell said.
Joselyn Lukacik, owner of Sweet Spot Studio, finds comfort in the fact that small businesses are all in this together.
“I am incredibly grateful to Corri and Garrett for creating this platform. Right now we are doing anything we can to extend our reach, and hopefully through SLOE we will find new customers who are looking to support small businesses,” she said.
“I want to get to the other side of this with my employees, they are my priority right now. Supporting local right now keeps people employed and dreams alive. Charlotte has already lost a lot of its culture to national chains coming in. People need to intentionally spend money with independently owned businesses right now if they want to preserve what’s left,” Lukacik said.
Try a new-to-you Charlotte business
As for local shoppers, SLOE offers them a chance to meet new businesses and enjoy promotions on things they already buy.
“We’re just trying to get as many people to the site as possible, so we are relying on our personal networks and supporters to spread the word,” Smith said. “This campaign is rallying a community together in a time when we’re being told to stay apart. The local support is exciting but not surprising. Charlotte is a collaborative city and we will make it through this together.”
Locals have done their part to get the site rolling by tagging local businesses that should be added in the comments section of an Instagram post on the official account, @supportlocalorelse. More than 200 businesses have already submitted an application.
“It’s important to always support local, and I always try to whenever possible. It’s so important right now because the small businesses are the lifeline of the community — they make Charlotte unique and special,” Smith said. “If we don’t support small businesses right now, we have no chance of breaking out of our brand as a ‘banking city.’ Our citizens will stay in crisis, and the number of those who are economically compromised will grow. We will lose even more creatives who won’t be able to afford to stay here. We will lose character as a city.”
“If you have the means to amplify a message, or do some good at this time you should. Period,” Tichy said.
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 10:52 AM.
