‘I Hate Small Business Saturday’: Silver Lining CEO Carissa Reiniger

By Carissa Reiniger, CEO of Silver Lining

(small.news) — I have dedicated my career and life to small business. Building my own business, creating a business that gives structure and support to small business owners, advocating on behalf of small business owners with governments and financial institutions globally and literally spending almost every dollar I spend with small businesses.

I should love Small Business Saturday, but I don’t.

Why I Hate Small Business Saturday

I think it is a gimmick when buying from a small business should be a lifestyle. I think it is a token gesture when it should be a genuine commitment from all of us to choose community over convenience every day.

I think it creates the conditions for us to think of buying from small businesses as a charity move or a “give back” decision when, actually, buying from small businesses is a critical economic move that we can all make in an effort to build a more resilient economy that works for all.

Small Business is Big

I love small businesses and it is mostly because of how creative, resilient, tenacious, and fun business owners are. When you want to see a version of business you can believe in, where capitalism hasn’t gone wrong and greed isn’t driving the economy, go talk to a small business owner.

In addition to being absolutely impressed every day by small business owners, I am acutely aware of the big impact they make on the economy. At a macro economic level, small business owners literally drive job creation, innovation, and economic growth in both developed and emerging economies.

If every small business stopped, the economy would halt. Small business is not cutesy, it is not insignificant, and it is not immaterial. Small business has a big impact on the economy—much bigger than major corporations and the tech unicorns we have all become so obsessed with in these past years.

Money Moves Power

And this is where you (and each of us) come in. We have to decide what kind of world we want to live in. Do we want to become so busy and so focused on our own productivity and convenience that we only shop on Amazon, even when we know many of the products are subpar, the people who work at Amazon are treated poorly, and the large-scale consumerism is killing our planet?

Do we want to be so oriented to saving a few cents here and there that we watch all of the small businesses in our neighborhoods close and all of a sudden we are surrounded by chain fast food and fast fashion?

I talk to so many people (from all political backgrounds and economic classes) who are worried about the economy and worried about what is happening in the world right now. The reality is that we have way more power than we are currently claiming. More than any elected official or tech oligarch, our money moves power.

How we spend our money creates the world that we live in. And buying from small business is an act of justice. Yours and theirs and ours.

Small Businesses Need Us

Part of the reason I love small business owners so much is that I get to witness, first hand, how hard they work and how much they sacrifice to build the businesses that all of us benefit from. They put absolutely everything on the line to create a product or service that ultimately makes their customer’s lives better, while also driving the economy that every single one of us benefits from.

I don’t have to tell you that it is incredibly difficult to build a small business. I have met countless people who had big executive jobs at a corporation or who were early employees at a venture backed start-up and chose to leave to start a small business. Without fail, their experience is that it is harder to build a small business than to do their previous jobs.

Why is it so hard to build a small business? The reality is that almost every system works against a small business owners success. Governments tax small business owners at the same levels as big business, but small business owners don’t have the same accountants and lawyers to find loopholes, so they actually pay those taxes. There is often much more complex permitting and local red tape for small business owners that is complicated and confusing and when they don’t get it perfect, they suffer relentless fees and penalties.

Small business owners are beautifully diverse and there are unending ways that systemic sexism, racism, homophobia, and a lack of understanding have a negative impact on their ability to succeed. They are also often generous and kind, so they give back to their families and communities. This results in more demands and pressure and stress.

Small business owners can rarely get access to capital and, as a result, either operate without any credit or take on debt at such exorbitant interest rates that the capital they acquire is more harmful to them than not having it at all.

And the hardest part of being a small business is to grow it, not start it. They need a viable growth path to build a profitable, sustainable business. Not to mention, the economy needs tons of successful small businesses much more than it needs one more venture-backed tech unicorn.

Your Choices Matter. You Are The Solution

Silver Lining has spent 20 years building a solution to solve getting small business owners the right support structure and fair access to capital, but even if they use our silv=r™ Platform and silv=r™ Capital products, they still need one more key thing to combat all of these challenges.

You. They need you!

They need you, me and all of us to buy from them. Small business owners don’t want charity or grants or hand outs. They want customers and revenue and people who value their offerings and buy from them.

The amazing thing about the economy is that it thrives with lots of small changes and contributions. And small business owners thrive with lots of small purchases and optimizations.

Buying From Small Businesses Can Literally Change The World

We have been taught that, to change anything, we need something big to happen. A huge donation to charity. A major upset in the next election. A miraculous solution to a big problem. But the reality is that behavior change science and macro-economics teach us that small is big. Small changes add up to big results.

I don’t want you to start a foundation and start making big grants. I don’t want you to feel the burden of changing everything in your life. I do want you to take 10% of what you already spend and simply buy from small business owners. If all of us made this small, simple, easy choice, we would shift the global economy.

One of my best friends, Marnie, heard me say this at Silver Lining’s 20 Year Anniversary Party earlier this year. Because she is the amazing person she is, she has taken this commitment to heart. Every time we talk, she shares the newest ways she found to buy from small businesses.

Gifts for her daughters for the holidays, a new outfit for her closet, her latest hair cut, the last book she read, and even baking supplies she needed! Not only is she spending her 10%, but she is making shopping an experience, not a “one-click” purchase. And the ripple effect of those small choices and purchases have a big impact because at least 20 small business owners now have a new customer in Marnie.

Imagine what would happen if every single one of us makes the same decision?

Small Business is a Lifestyle

Buying from small businesses is a lifestyle. It is a decision to be conscious about how we spend our money. It is an opportunity to create the world we want to live in with every dollar we spend. It is a commitment to choose community over convenience. It is a small choice with a big impact.

So, let’s do that. Not one day a year. Every day!

---

Running a small business can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. Become part of a global network of small business owners through silv=r™ by Silver Lining. Sign up now!