It goes without saying that Valentine's Day is huge for the floral industry, and the impact it has on small floral businesses can't be understated. For Valentine's Day last year Forbes estimated that there would be about seven billion dollars in floral sales in the United States alone!

With so many small businesses relying on that income, especially after the last year we all experienced, it's more important than ever to support small, local businesses for your flower purchases. Big box stores are fine for your groceries and home needs, but it's your local floral artisans that are going to make the highest quality, most meaningful bouquets and arrangements.

The Importance of Shopping Small

There are many great reasons to shop within your community, let's look at some of the key values of supporting local businesses!

Small Businesses Support the Local Economy: When you shop at a local business, you're supporting a company that pays taxes into your local governments, and you're also keeping your dollar where you live. Want to have nice schools and smooth roads? Supporting the local economy makes your whole community stronger just by way of keeping your dollars local.
Small Businesses Create Jobs: In the last 25 years in the United States, more than half of all of the country's jobs were created by small businesses! According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses added 8 million jobs to local economies in the last 30 years alone, while big business eliminated millions of jobs. The more we support small businesses, the more job opportunities we are helping to create in our communities!
Small Businesses Offer Better Service: Local companies have more freedom to go the extra mile, more incentive to satisfy their customers, and more competition to deal with, which are all reasons why they tend to offer more complete customer service. A regional grocery chain is so big they don't have any incentive to go above and beyond for individuals. Sure, they can still provide good service, but if they don't do it every time, it's not going to hurt their bottom line. Local business owners count on their community and have every reason to provide high-quality products and service - which is why they do it best!
Small Businesses Create Communities: These folks are the back-bone of your local community! If they weren't here doing business, you wouldn't have a city or town. You know that cute little downtown area of your city? It's all small businesses that make it that way!

How Can You Support Small Businesses?

First of all, you can shop with them!
Support your local businesses on social media. Shout them out when you're happy with the product or service they offer. Take a photo of that beautiful bouquet, post it on your Instagram and tag the florist!
Search for information about small business programs like Small Business Saturday and engage with them. Sharing things on social media is a great way to show your support and encourage others to do the same!
If you are a small business, keep up with the Small Business Administration and sign up for Small Business Saturday!
Show your support for your business neighbors! Know which businesses are located around yours and recommend their services whenever it makes sense to do so!

Below are some social media images we have created for you to use to show your support for small businesses in your area - just right click and save to your desktop for easy sharing. Don't forget to buy flowers from a local florist for that special person in your life this Valentine's Day!

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