Saving Small Business, One Sale at a Time
Business Wire, Sept 03, 2009
Entrepreneurial company launches innovative campaign to support local
businesses during difficult time
MERIDIAN, Idaho — A simple formula adds up to big help for small business: 100,000 people
x $50 spent at locally owned businesses = a $5,000,000 economic infusion.
Thats the thinking of Orville and Heidi Thompson and their team at
Scentsy, a Meridian, Idaho-based maker of wickless, scented candles. The
new campaign, Contribute
2009, culminates the week of October 12 with shopping throughout the
country.
We want to inspire an army 100,000-strong to go out and spend an extra
$50 at locally owned small businesses in their community, says Orville.
Thats a $5 million cash infusion that can create a ripple effect in
communities across the nation.
Having persevered despite three-quarters of a million dollars of debt at
its founding, the Thompsons know what it means to struggle as small
business owners. The company developed the Contribute
2009 campaign to celebrate its fifth anniversary in July when it
gave a total of $100,000 to 40 small businesses in the Boise area by
sending employees and suppliers into the community with $50 each to
spend at two businesses.
The Boise Contribute results were inspiring. Scentsy employees also
spent more than $10,000 of their own money to help local businesses.
Skepticism from small business owners turned to gratitude when they saw
there were no strings attached to this organized spend. Some owners were
in tears. Others commented they didnt think they would have survived
the summer without it.
As a party plan company, our 35,000 independent consultants are all
small business owners so they understand and empathize with other
entrepreneurs, continues Heidi. We wanted to take our anniversary
program to the next level. We thought that if each of our consultants
pledges to spend $50 at a locally owned small business and then
encourages friends, family and customers to do the same, we can create a
groundswell of good and make an impact on local economies.
In fact, dollars spent at community-based merchants create a multiplier
effect in the local economy. The American
Independent Business Alliance estimates that from each dollar spent
at a local independent merchant, three or more times as much typically
goes back into the local economy compared to a dollar spent at
chain-owned businesses. A 2003 economic impact study in Austin, Texas by
Civic Economics (commissioned by the Austin
Independent Business Alliance), concluded for every $100 spent at a
chain, $13 remained in the community while $45 remained when spent with
hometown businesses.
Anyone can take the Contribute
2009 pledge. Visit www.scentsycontribute.org
for more information, to pledge to spend $50 to help small businesses on
October 12 (or another day that week), and to purchase a Contribute 2009
t-shirt.
About Scentsy
Scentsy Inc. is a rapidly growing party plan company offering a variety
of scented, wickless candles heated in decorative ceramic warmers, and
other fragrance products