Shop Small, Shop Local, Shop Lincoln This Holiday Season
The start of another holiday season is upon us. On behalf of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and all of our 1,700 members, I would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season. I encourage you to spend time with those closest to you and thank them for the contributions they have made to your life. Personally, I’m thankful for the opportunity we’ve had at the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce to make Lincoln a better place to live, start a business and find new opportunities unique to our community. The goal at the Lincoln Chamber has always been to create new opportunities for existing Lincoln businesses and to recruit new businesses that want to call Lincoln home. We believe the hard work is paying off with a vibrant economy.
The holiday season is also a time of giving and many of you will spend the next few weeks trying to find that perfect gift. As you shop, I encourage you to support your local economy and buy Lincoln first. The money you spend at retailers here in Lincoln helps boost our local sales tax base and helps our community grow. When local sales tax collections increase, it helps off-set the reliance on property tax revenues to fund all of the things a growing city needs to be successful. A shift in just a few of your purchases will lead to additional revenue for our community and promote job growth.
In addition to helping your community grow, when you buy local you also support the foundation on which all good economies are built, small business.
According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses have generated 64 percent of the net new private-sector jobs over the past 15 years. That’s why the Lincoln Chamber joined forces with American Express to promote Small Business Saturday. For example: instead of ordering a new drum set from a catalog, consider stopping by a local music store. Instead of heading to Omaha to shop at a large national retailer, stop by a local store and see if you can make your purchase there. There are countless other examples I could point to as ways to make more of your purchases locally this holiday season, but the theme is the same. This effort is aimed at reminding shoppers to consider smaller, Lincoln-based businesses as a source of holiday giving. Your money and how you spend it can make the difference in somebody else’s business.
I hope you have a happy and safe holiday season and cheers to making 2017 another successful year for business and job growth in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Chamber’s mission is to improve the lives of Lincoln residents by providing increased economic opportunity and can only be accomplished together. For more information on the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, (www.lcoc.com) please contact Jaime Henning at jaimehenning@lcoc.com.