Alaskan Best

Now more than ever, local small businesses need our support.  Whenever a local small business fails we all feel it in ways that we may not even realize.

• That business could be a customer of your business or employer.
• That business could be a supplier or service provider you, your business or your employer relies on.
• The business owner and employees could be customers of your business or employer
• Business inventory sold below cost or at auction can cut into your sales or adversely affect pricing.
• With each business failure, consumer confidence is eroded which can adversely affect sales.
• Business closures can lead to personal bankruptcies, foreclosures and repossessions, which have negative affects on the markets.
• Business failures increase demands on unemployment and public assistance.
• Small businesses are often the refuge of those that lose their jobs with larger businesses due to the economy.

These people are our neighbors, friends and family.  Their children go to school with our children.  They may go to your church, or be a member of your bowling or softball team.  When they hurt, we can’t help but to feel it.

Following the path of the #followfriday twitter tradition, I’m proposing a #smbizmonday. (Small Business  Monday).  The format will be like this: #smbizmonday #(city) Business Name Business URL

For example (a friend of mine): #smbizmonday #anc Borreson Painting http://borresonpainting.com

If the business doesn’t have a web site, then link to their listing on BuyAlaska.com or even a listing in the online yellow pages.  When you receive a #smbizmonday twit, check out the link and RT it to your followers if you think it’s worthwhile to share.

Again an example from above: RT @alaskanbest #smbizmonday #anc Borreson Painting http://borresonpainting.com

In addition, each Monday I’ll post a new Small Business Monday thread like this and invite readers to submit information about locally owned and operated Alaskan small businesses.

So let’s get this thing rolling.  Share this post with your friends and social networks. Let’s put work into our Social NetWORK.

Alaskans are a breed apart.  We can disagree, sometimes very strongly and passionately, but when it comes down to it, we all need to work together.  In spite of differences in public policy and politics.  So this is going to be a blog about how we can build bridges to connect Alaskans from around the state with one another, for our mutual benefit.  The goal is to meet somewhere in the middle of the bridge with minds and hearts open.

My efforts so far has been connecting to Alaskans through Twitter,  Facebook, and Linkedin.  I also created a custom Google Search Engine with only Alaskan content. Currently searches 5,027 sources from all around the state. You can get the code to add the search to your website here.  You can suggest a site to be included here.  You can get free banner advertising here.

I have also have laid out some ideas on “Cooperative Community Marketing” which I hope to have some discussion here on how we can build on that idea to help each other.  I think now more than ever it’s important for us to support our local small businesses.

Finally, I plan on doing short reviews of unique, creative, and interesting Alaskan websites.  The goal is weekly, we’ll see how that works.  I’ll write more on the idea in another post.  If you have any suggestions for a site to be reviewed post them in the comments section and I’ll take a look for consideration.

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