Why You Should Be Supporting Local Businesses

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LIVE with Claudia – Why You Should Be Supporting Local Businesses Right Now

Hi, everyone. Claudia from Hugo coffee roasters. Again. Thanks for tuning in today. I’m sipping our brand new Honduras. We just got it in. We just got the beans delivered and we just roasted our first batch and we’re giving it a go. And it’s yummy. Anyway, here today, we are here to talk about I’m here to talk about.

Small businesses in America and how important they are and what people, what is happening with them and what you can do. And we can all do to help our small business community. So I’m sure we all know that small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. They are what creates community. They are. They help define who we are as a community.

So for example, I live in park city, Utah. That is a resort based economy. Small businesses are absolutely critical to what park city is and why people come to park city because of her fantastic small community, our small business community and small businesses. They employ more people than any other business is in the country.

So it’s imperative that we do everything we can to help our small business community. And particularly when you’re talking about the world of small businesses, women owned businesses and African-American owned businesses are really, really struggling. And what’s really interesting is that. Consumers consumers want to purchase from women owned businesses.

They want to purchase from African-American owned businesses, but they don’t know that they are women owned businesses or African-American owned business. And there’s a reason for that. And it’s probably in my opinion, that women tend not to shout it from the rooftops. But the fact is I am a woman owned business.

I am the face of my brand. I am trying to become more and more and more the face of my brand, because I know that 68% of consumers want to purchase from women owned businesses. And I want them to know I’m here as a women owned business, creating a fantastic product that helps save animals. So please support us, um, anyway, super important that in America or pretty much anywhere, small businesses.

Need to be supported by their communities and by the consumers now, no, at no time in the world, I swear to God in the world, has this been more important than right now? Because we have just had the toughest five months of our lives. And if we survive, if these are small businesses survive, then they do so because of your help, because.

Many of us, particularly in the field that I operate in, which is I own a coffee shop and I own a roasting company and that roasting company supplies. Hotels restaurants, cafes and restaurants, hotels, hotels, resorts, cafes, restaurants, corporations, universities, all the places that closed overnight on March 15th.

Uh, so on March 15th, I lost 95% of my wholesale business, my roasting company business overnight, and I lost my coffee shop. Is this a hundred percent overnight now? How did we survive? A lot of us have survived because we’ve had some terrific programs that the government had. The cares act was super helpful.

We happen. I happen to live in a state. Utah state has been very helpful in helping small businesses survive this crisis. But the fact of the matter is PPP and the EIDM funding is pretty much used up. So now we’re, we’re operating in a world where our businesses down something today, too. Between 30 and 50%, depending on your business.

My business, my coffee shop business is down 50%. My roasting business is down 30% year over year, and this was the year I was going to skyrocket and hockey stick growth. And in fact, I’m struggling to maintain, to eat and get back to what last year sales are. But I’m lucky because one, I access funds. I access them quickly.

And two, I have a very supportive community and I just want to say thanks to everybody who’s ever supported us because it means the world to us. And it really means the world to us now. So the question is what can we do to support small business? We can buy local, we can shop local. We can go to main street.

We can dine out side, take out. Do whatever you can stop cooking at home. Go buy food, go buy dinners in from restaurants. Maybe take them back home to eat. Maybe take them out for a picnic, but help your small businesses on your main street. Help your small businesses wherever you are, and you can help Hugo coffee particularly.

By supporting us by supporting us the way you’ve always supported us. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, buy our coffee. Look at these, watch these videos where I look like an idiot and I’m chatting every week, but, you know, whatever, just support, just do whatever you can to support your small businesses in your community because they are the lifeblood.

They will thank you. And you are why we will survive and hopefully thrive as we weather. The COVID-19 crisis. So cheers. Drink coffee, have a lovely day and I’ll see you next week. Bye.