By: Deborah Johnson Wood
You’ve probably seen the yellow triangular window clings in area businesses indicating they are members of Local First. But what is Local First?
Local First, a nonprofit dedicated to creating demand for locally owned businesses and educating consumers on the economic impact of shopping at those businesses, logged 40,000 hits on its online directory in 2007. In the last 16 months, the organization more than doubled its membership of locally owned businesses, jumping from 150 members to 370.
Monthly networking events, the Local First Street Party, the Eat Local Challenge, and a new Entrepreneurial Resource Network where business owners share resources and business solutions are a few of the organization’s events to promote locally owned businesses.
“My firm landed three new clients as a result of connecting with a colleague through Local First,” says Craig Clark of Clark Communications. “Local First is the organization to belong to if you own a local business and want to connect with other individuals and businesses that support the triple bottom line theory of sustainability.”
The organization recently commissioned a local study to determine the impact of locally owned businesses on the Greater Grand Rapids economy, and to identify the number of locally owned full service restaurants, bookstores and banks. A similar study in Chicago determined that $73 dollars of every $100 spent at locally owned businesses stays in the community, compared to only $43 spent at national chains.
“We’re taking the study to the next level by asking what would happen if, as a community, we shift 10 percent of our spending from national to locally owned businesses,” says Elissa Sangalli Hillary, executive director. “What jobs would that create?”
The results of the local study will be available in a few weeks.
Source: Elissa Sangalli Hillary, Local First; Craig Clark, Clark Communications, courtesy photo
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Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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