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For those of you have been or are just starting to cut your spending, congratulation. Have you ever thought about the people on the other end? Since so many companies we shop at are large like Walmart we think that the company is large enough to keep them on the books. But do people lose their jobs if you cut your expenses?
What about the little guy?
The issue is that there are many businesses that are small. For them losing a few regular customers can mean the difference between staying in business and going under. Think about the local pizza place or gift shop or even a salon. These are usually the things that we cut from the budget first. Cutting them helps us make our budgets, which is wonderful. Unfortunately, there are side effects that we don’t think about.
With more and more of use cutting things out the local small businesses can feel the effects. Think about this as an example; let’s say a small pizza place loses 10 regular customers who buy every Friday night. In this example we will assume that 10 customers equals 1 employee. So if this happened for one month the owner may not do anything. They may assume that it a fluke.
As another month goes by the owner will start to worry. They will then start to consider what can be done. If they are smart about their business they will advertise to get more sales. The problem with advertising is that you may or may not get more sales from it. If an owner considers advertising they will also think about the “what if’s”. Like if I spend the money, “what if” I don’t get more sales and still get to let someone go?
What options do they have?
So many owners will work though this thought process and decide that instead of prolonging the inevitable, they will let someone go right away. When it is time for a decision to be made there are three possible outcomes, 1) they advertise, get more sales and don’t let anyone go 2) they advertise and it doesn’t work and still need to let someone go or 3) they just let someone go without advertising. Two out of three ways result in the business cutting a job.
Yes of course they could decide not to do anything and hope it gets better. Many owners do this. It’s called sticking your head in the sand and not dealing with reality. So to each their own, after all it is their business. What could happen if they do nothing is that the whole business goes under and everyone is out of work.
What does this have to do with you?
Now, what does this have to do with you? Every dollar that you spend or don’t spend has a direct impact on your community. I see nothing wrong with cutting back on your expenses. What I am suggesting is that we try to think about how our cuts are affecting our local community.
Look at it this way if we decide to eat out less when we do eat out choose a small local restaurant. Picking the small business over a larger one will mean that more money is kept within the community and mean more people will keep their jobs wher you live.
Dose this work 100% of the time? Of course not, but it is something that I have been thinking about. It is these little things that are not seen on the surface of our daily lives. When we are going through our regular routine we are usually in a hurry and don’t give much thought to what we are doing that is obvious to us, let alone to what possible chain reaction we could be involved in. This is a result of hectic lives that don’t let us that the time or really look at the world around us.
Don’t feel bad
I say all of this not to make you feel bad about what you are or are not spending money on and where that money is being spent. What I want to make you think about how your money is making changes in ways that are not easily recognized. When all of us think about our spending as a part of a system we see that what we do affects our neighbors. Buying local is for more than just food from your local farmer.
What you can do
There are things you can do while cutting expenses so you can still help your local community. You can shop at goodwill or salvation army stores. You can get good deals and the money goes back into the community. When you do go out to eat make a small place that is locally owned. If you need maintenance done on your car or house use a small business. Avoid the large companies as best you can. You might not be spending as much money, but it’s going to places that need it the most.