Fixing the Leaky Bucket

When our business leaders, planners, and politicians look at ways to revitalize local towns and rural areas, the usual proposed solutions focus on ways to bring more money into the community.  Typical approaches to bringing in money involve promoting tourism, agriculture, corporate relocations and other forms of inward investments.  What is often overlooked is the important concept of money flow within the community.

Think of your local economy as a bucket.  Bringing in money to your community is like pouring water in the bucket.  The bucket is going to have some holes in it and some of the water will leak out.  Some of the holes can’t be fixed so you will always have a leaky bucket.  The state and federal government will collect taxes, for example.  That is a hole that can’t be fixed.  

Other holes can be fixed.  Residents who shop at a box store, for example, will shop locally if the locally owned store offers the same product or service at a competitive price.  A strong shop local movement and messaging encourages more local shopping.   Locally owned and operated businesses have more flexibility in offering locally grown produce or locally caught seafood products.  Locally owned businesses often fill a niche that chain stores often fail to fill.

The idea of the leaky bucket illustrates the importance of money flow through a community.  The longer the bucket holds water, the less frequently the community needs to refill the bucket.  All that money flowing in and through the community can be used to sponsor a little league team or build a new park instead of finding new ways to keep the tap flowing into the community.

Let’s put the illustration in simple dollars and cents.  Some studies suggest that for every dollar spent at a locally owned and operated business, sixty-eight cents stays in the community.  The same dollar spent at a nationally owned store sees thirteen cents staying in the community.  In the middle are our locally owned and operated franchises.  For every dollar spent with them, forty-eight cents remain in the community.

Now an important concept comes into play, a concept called the multiplier effect.  The sixty-eight cents from your dollar that stayed in your community is spent by that business owner or employee at another locally owned and operated business.  Forty-six cents remains in the local community.  If the person who received the forty-six cents continues the trend of spending locally, the money will pass through seven more hands—for a total of nine of your friends and neighbors—before the leaky bucket has taken it down to two cents.  

At the national box store, the employee, who received the thirteen cents in his pay, spends it at another nationally owned business.  Only two cents remain in the community.  In effect, the original dollar you spent at the national chain is gone after passing hands to only one of your neighbors or friends.

In the middle are the locally owned and operated franchises.  You spend a dollar there and forty-eight cents stay in the community.  The business owner spends that forty-eight cents at a locally owned or operated franchise and a quarter remains in the community.  Continuing the trend on down the line and that original forty-eight cents would pass through the hands of six of your neighbors or friends before it disappears from the community.  

In the real world, it isn’t always practical, and often not even possible, to spend your money exclusively at locally owned and operated businesses.  But you do have the power to slow the leaks.  Several independent studies have concluded that a 10% shift in our spending habits to support locally owned and operated businesses would create hundreds of new jobs and tens—if not hundreds—of millions of dollars in new economic activity.

You have the power to patch some of the leaks in your local economy's bucket.  Here are steps you can take to slow, and maybe stop, some of those leaks:

• Whether you're a business owner stocking your store, a contractor stocking your toolbox and truck, or a shopper who needs something different, think local first.  Even if you think local once a month, you've taken a big step in slowing the leaks in your community's bucket.
  
  
• Download The Original Shop Local Delmarva app.  Currently, the app is only available for Android devices, but Apple devices are coming soon.
  
  
• If you are a business owner, get listed in the app.  You don't need an Android device to list your business.  Once I get Apple approval, the app shares the same database as Google.  I'm hoping for approval from Apple around the start of the new year.
  
  
• Follow The Original Shop Local Delmarva on Facebook and Blogger.  Get the latest news and updates before they even hit Cuddles Clipbbord.
  
  
• Participate on the monthly Shop Local Delmarva Day.  Details to be announced on Facebook and Blogger.

Please stay tuned.  A lot is coming.  As always, feel free to let me know what you want.  Email or call me.  The Original Shop Local Delmarva app is your app.  Help design the app and shape the Shop Local Delmarva movement the way you want it.

Tips on getting listed in the app

It's not mispelled,  It looks like Old English to me.
Please remember Cuddles is doing his best.

When I first started planning the development of The Original Shop Local Delmarva app, I was faced with an initial, but crucial, decision.  How should I get locally owned and operated businesses listed?  Now that sounds like a very straightforward question, but the answer carries serious implications about what sort of website or company you are dealing with.

Let's take Yelp as an example.  Like most online business directories, Yelp scrapes the Internet for businesses, lists them, and then provides a link for the business to "claim" their listing.  Until the business finds out that they are listed on Yelp, they rack up reviews unbeknownst to the owners.  Any negative reviews go unanswered, which could cost the business new customers.  

If you search "Locally owned and operated businesses in [your town], [your state]", you might end up on the site www.chamberofcommerce.com.  It might look official to you, but it is not.  They, too, scrape the Internet for business listings without the owner's permission.  You are expected to know your listing is over there getting reviews, some of which might be negative.  Users might believe they are on an official Chamber of Commerce website, but they are not.

And then you have legitimate Chamber of Commerce websites that list local businesses, but their listings include every business that pays their dues to the Chamber.  Users have no clue which businesses are truly locally owned and operated as opposed to any business (franchise or nationally owned) with a physical presence in the town the Chamber is located.  My Chamber of Commerce, for example, listed a business headquartered in Texas.  I'm willing to bet a sizable portion of residents think of it as a locally owned and operated business, but it is not.

My developers gave me the option of scraping the Internet to load the SLD directory.  I rejected their suggestion.  My philosophy was, and still is, based on a simple idea.  Your business listing is yours and you should have complete control over where, when, and how it should be used.  

I didn't develop The Original Shop Local Delmarva to make money other than what is needed to run the app.  I set out to level the playing field for the Mom and Pops so that they can effectively compete against the franchises and national corporations.  (There is a caveat in what I just said about franchises, but I'll cover that in a future article.  If you are a franchise owner, please feel free to contact me.)  

I reckon with what I just said above, either I have much longer range of views for SLD (I do) or I'm getting tired of typing (I am).  But you, the business owner, and you, the user, share the SLD driver's seat.  I'm just the navigator.  Bots roaming the Internet best stay in the marked crosswalks.

With that said, please allow me to address some of the sign-up concerns I have heard and the workarounds you can use to get listed without feeling like you might be compromising your privacy concerns or feeling overwhelmed by the technical requirements.

• What's with this W9 requirement?
  
  The W9 helps me confirm that your business is both real and locally operated.  In reality, the W9 only lists your company (verifying you're not sixteen-year-old Sally selling hair ribbons out of her bedroom) and business address (your headquarters aren't outside of Delmarva).  In other words, your W9 doesn't share important information that might be a privacy invasion.  The W9 simply states the information that is already public information and is used regularly in business-to-business transactions.  It is one of a few tools I use to ensure the integrity of the directory.  The tools aren't perfect, but all are a matter of public information.  Some of those same tools are used by those scraping websites I mentioned.
  
  
• What if I simply don't want to send you my W9?
  
  Don't send it.  Contact me instead.  You can email me at support@shoplocaldelmarva.com or call me at 410-463-4196.  (If I don't answer, please text me.  Some day I might figure out how to set up my voicemail.) 
  
  It's not too hard to convince me you are locally owned and operated.  Once I'm convinced, I'll send you a properly formatted form to substitute in the W9 field. 
  
  Here's a thought for you.  You want to get listed, but how do you know I am a locally owned and operated directory?  You don't until you talk to me.
  
  
• What if I'm a home-based business and want to conceal some private information like a home phone number or address?
  
  The address and phone number fields are not cross referenced by the app.  You will want to make sure your town, state, and zip code are accurate to ensure your potential customers at least know the general area your business is located.  Your phone number can be real or masked.  If, for some reason, you don't want anyone to know your phone number, you can enter 555-555-5555 and you're good to go.  My developers, however, assure me that they followed proper protocols to protect your information from bots that roam the web looking for phone numbers and emails.  While an incomplete street address might go unnoticed, a masked phone number or email address may raise some eyebrows among your potential customers.
  
  
• Where is my information stored?
  
  Any information you share with SLD is stored in the cloud until you delete your listing.  The only people who have access to your information is my development team and me.  For example, if you submit your W9, it is stored in the cloud that only my developers have access to.  The app then emails me a copy so I can review it.  I review the copy and then delete it.  None of your information is shared or sold to anyone.
  
  Oh, and once my developers send me a contract completion form to sign (it's in the works), even they won't have access to the cloud and your information anymore.
  
  
• I'm busy and don't have the time to figure out the technical aspects of listing my business.  What do I do?
  
  Simply email me (support@shoplocaldelmarva.org) with a description of the problem you are having.  Together, we'll get you listed.  
  
  
  
  

I'm very big on privacy. When new technology hit the market in the form of the telephone, privacy rights were immediately raised.  In 1928, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. United States that wiretapping phone lines didn’t violate privacy rights because the lines were public property. Justice Louis Brandeis dissented, famously stating that the Constitution protects "the right to be let alone."  It took another almost forty years for the US Supreme Court to reverse that 1928 ruling.  During Nixon's presidency, the US Supreme Court ruled that a warrant is required to tap the phone lines.

While our Congress hasn't exactly caught up with the Digital Age, I strive to operate in the digital world under the strictest of privacy considerations that I think should be, not what is.  My guiding principle is you have a right to be left alone. My app relies on third party entities, and I try to make sure the third parties follow the same principle.

Don't you just hate it when you're enjoying a chicken neck and a net scrapes you up and throws you in a basket?  You won't find any of that tomfoolery going on around here.

Grow with The Original Shop Local Delmarva

Yes, I know he spelled it "Clipbbord", but Cuddles is doing his best.

Anything worth building takes a lot of careful planning and time.  Sure, I could throw some straw together and call it a house or some sticks and call it a mansion, but neither creation would stand for very long.  We all know it is the house of bricks that stands strong for just about anything that blows its way.

I started The Original Shop Local Delmarva (SLD) fifteen years ago.  I originally built it out of straw, namely on the Facebook platform.  While that Facebook page is still going strong today, it wasn't strong enough to support the shop local movement on its own.  So I built a website.

The website offered stronger support, until the hosting site upgraded its servers.  The website crashed and my efforts to fix it ensured it stayed crashed.  I followed the hosting company's instructions, but nothing worked.  I faced taking on two possible solutions: rebuild the site from scratch or build something new that would be stronger and more useful for supporting locally owned and operated businesses.  That something new was an app.   

Cuddles' Notes
You can find the app
in Google Play Store.
Apple version coming soon

I maintained (and still maintain) the Facebook page:


https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057578195068  


Right now, my website is a simple landing page:


https://businessowner.shoplocaldelmarva.org/


The site is a page where you, the business owner, can list your business with the ability for you to update and add to it anytime you want. 

When you load your information, it is instantly uploaded to the SLD app.  There's no need for a shopper or tourist to visit a website and plan out their shopping trip ahead of time.  They can pull out their phone, click a few options, and find their locally owned and operated businesses near them...or up to fifty miles away, on the spot, no pre-planning required.

While I saved the money over the last ten years to get the app built, I also developed a three, five, and ten-year plan of how to grow the app and the shop local movement.  Like any business plan, it sets goals.

In the three-year plan, the goal is to get 500+ businesses listed and 1,000+ users per day.  The first three years are mostly building the foundation.  The whole Shop Local Delmarva movement can't happen without a solid base of participating businesses and users.

In the five-year plan, the goal is to develop your listing as your personal advertising platform.  That's where the subscription levels will become important.  By five years, I aim to have a skeletal advertising design in place with room to expand for the AI technology coming. 

We're beginning to see what the AI technology can do.  Its capabilities are predicted to take off like a rocket after about 2030.  Gone will be the days when big corporations were the only ones who could afford flashy advertising.  Mom and Pop will be able to create a catchy, two-minute video over their morning cup of coffee at little to no cost.

In the ten-year plan, the goal is to have 75% of the locally owned and operated businesses listed with usage levels rivaling, or even surpassing, other business directory sites like Yelp or Angies List.  I also have a lot to learn in the next ten years because I'd like to see The Original Shop Local Delmarva (that's all the locally owned and operated businesses and supporters) gain the political clout needed to cut the red tape in starting and running a small business, receive tax incentives on par with the national corporations, be eligible for health insurance benefits on par in cost and benefits as what the big box stores have, and even qualify for wholesale pricing that narrows the gap between Mom and Pop and the out-of-towners.  

Cuddles' Notes
You can list your
business regardless
of the phone you own

The Original Shop Local Delmarva’s plans and goals may sound like a tall order of lofty dreams, but none of it can come to fruition without your support. It all starts with listing your business.

Get listed today:  https://businessowner.shoplocaldelmarva.org/

The Original Shop Local Delmarva is growing!

Before we could build something, we needed a tool.  I built The Original Shop Local Delmarva app to be that tool. 

Now we’re building something together using that tool.  We're building a stronger local community and a louder voice for our locally owned and operated businesses.  But we needed another tool to tie the app, businesses, and people together. 

So, I built another tool.  Over in the right-hand column you'll see a newsletter sign up form.  With this tool you will be in the loop as The Original Shop Local Delmarva grows over the next ten years.  Yes, The Original Shop Local Delmarva has a five-year plan and a ten-year plan.  Its ultimate goal: build a model of a shop local movement that builds sustainable local economies and communities that local communities across the country will want to emulate.

Please sign up for the newsletter to stay in the loop.  Your email will not be sold or used by anyone other than The Original Shop Local Delmarva to deliver you our newsletter once a month or so.

The first issue will be coming out in about a week.  The first issue will explain how to list your business, where to find help, how to advertise with The Original Shop Local Delmarva, and will start sharing the long range dream The Original Shop Local Delmarva holds.  Don't miss it!  Sign up over there on the right today.

Shop Local Delmarva app goes live

 From Shop Local Delmarva Facebook page:

Sneak peek of the new Shop Local Delmarva app

Here's your first look at what to expect with the new Shop Local Delmarva app in pictures.  Please keep in mind the app you will see tomorrow is not the finished product.  It is the foundation for a project that will be in work for at least the next ten years.  Your feedback is important to shape how the app will grow and adapt to your needs.  What you will get tomorrow is Shop Local Delmarva 1.0.  You will shape its future versions as the Shop Local Delmarva community grows.  

Please note as you browse through the pictures, all businesses you see are fictional and were test businesses in developing the app.  They will not be listed in the live version being released tomorrow.

First up is the warm up page.  As the app downloads the directory, you'll see the place holder page with the new name, The Original Shop Local Delmarva.  Since I didn't hold onto my Shop Local Delmarva name and website from eleven years ago (that would've cost a lot of money), someone else now uses the name and .com website that goes with it.  I had to rebrand my business name (adding "The Original") and change the website, that will be coming sometime in the future, to .org instead of .com.  There is a .com website out there, but it is not affiliated with the app or the work I started fifteen years ago.

Once everything loads up, first time users will have the option to sign up as a user or business owner (vendor).  Users can create a personalized account or simply use the app as a guest.  Business owners, however, will be required to set up an account.  Don't worry.  It's free to sign up and maintain a business account.  Once you've set up an account (user or business owner), you won't see this page any more.  The app remembers who you are.

You will next be taken to the page that greets you every time you open the app after being set up.  The app will load the businesses within a five-mile range of where you are currently located.  You will need to have your location activated for this to be accurate.

The important feature on this page is the search field.  Of course you can search by business name, but the most helpful tool will be the three transit line menu in the right hand side of the search bar.  There are two sets of filters.  One sets the distance radius to search from zero to fifty miles out.  The other filter searches by category and subcategory of the business.

The miles slide bar is self explanatory.  If you want to search all businesses by miles only, you're done.  Click the "apply filter" button.

The category filter is also self explanatory.  You get to select one main category and then the subcategory becomes active.  The subcategory is tailored to each main category and so will be different for each main category.  You can select as many subcategories as you like.  Click the "Apply Filter" button and all businesses meeting your search requirements will be shown.

Please note you can use both filters at the same time.  For example, you can search for retail (main category) businesses in a 15-mile radius of your location that are nurseries/garden centers, roadside stands, or florists that offer loyalty programs or rare and exotic plants.

As a business owner, you will want to take advantage of the category and subcategories.  Category and subcategories are how most people will find you.  All business owners get to pick one category.  Paid subscriptions determine how many subcategories you can pick to describe your business.

When you select a business, you'll see the details of the business.  The one pictured below is the Heron level subscription.  It has the most features available.  Subscription levels range from Shorebird (free) through Oriole (a bit more options, yet affordable) to Osprey (even more options) to Heron (the most options).

Since the app is new, Shorebird and Oriole are the best options to select.  We need a sizable directory to attract users, so I wanted to make the subscriptions attractive and affordable.  The Osprey and Heron levels are competitively priced for the features they offer but not cost effective right now.  The nice thing, though, is as the app grows, business owners can change their subscriptions at any time.  If by summer, for example, we have 500 businesses in the directory and 10,000+ users, the business owner can easily change their subscription to the level with more features to attract more customers than a basic free Shorebird or Oriole level can attract.

If you click on "Profile" in the lower right hand corner, you'll see your personalized account (means you can add your picture), but more importantly, you can find all the important fine print.  

And there you have it, the buck ninety-nine tour of the Shop Local Delmarva app.

Right now the app is only available for android phones.  The iOS phone availability is coming at a later date.  As a business owner, though, you don't need an android phone to add your business to the directory.  Tomorrow I will be posting a landing page where all businesses owners can load their business information.  It's a lot easier to upload the information from a desktop or laptop than on the tiny screen of a phone.  Also, the link to the landing page will be accessible in the right hand column of this page.

Shop Local Delmarva Day this Saturday

The second Saturday of every month is Shop Local Delmarva Day.  If everyone were to shift their spending by 10% towards our locally owned and operated businesses, the local economy would see a boost to the tune of $350 million new revenue and fifty to one hundred new jobs created. 



Old habits die hard

<sigh> Old habits die hard.

Almost two months ago, I realized that supporting our locally owned and operated businesses can mean more than just stopping in a local business once in awhile. Every Saturday, I buy beer, and it's always Budweiser, in a bottle. I have a few decades-long brand loyalty to Bud. When I asked for suggestions to switch to a comparable locally produced beer, Lee Weldon, ...a strong supporter of this site and manager of Habitat ReStore, suggested National Premium, the favorite old beer that has gained new life through the efforts of the owner in Easton. (In fact, I had an interesting learning tour of the efforts of entreprenuers across the country bringing back the old brands of various products that had long since disappeared off our shelves.)

Long story short (too late, I know), National Premium is a bit more expensive than Bud, but I vowed to treat myself to a six-pack every once in awhile. After a long day at work (only a ten-hour day, today, no breaks or lunch), I stopped at my locally owned and operated liquor store and bought...Budweiser. Just habit. Tired from a long day, grabbed my beer, and headed home. Cursed myself out once again for not getting the National Premium after I had gotten almost halfway home.

Yes, old habits die hard, especially when one gets up in age. I refuse to accept that I am an old dog so I am getting me a six-pack of National Premium this week even if I have to walk the thirty miles uphill, both ways, to the nearest store in subzero temps and in a raging blizzard.

Top Ten Reasons to shop local for the holidays

10. Your only threat of being trampled is by the store owner's hound dog who may be a bit over-exuberent in greeting you.

9. Mrs. Baldwin might share her family secret recipe for that fruit cake of hers you've loved since you were a kid.

8. Mr. Baldwin might share his family secret recipe for homemade rum that goes in that fruit cake.

7. Catch up on all the news going on around town.

6. Discover that you are actually living an exciting life that's more fun-filled than Bond, James Bond's life, at least according to your neighbors and friends.

5. Don't know what to get for that person who has everything? Bet that shop around the corner has something that hard-to-shop-for person doesn't have and the national chains have never heard of it.

4. Which would you rather hear when you stop to grab a bite to eat: "You want fries with that?" or "Hey, honey, how have you been? I've heard you've been leading an exciting life lately. How are your kids?"

3. Find fresh preserves, jams, and relishes packed in real Mason Jars and send them off to your kids in the military or college. They'll think you slaved for hours in the kitchen making the special taste of home because you love them so much.

2. Sardines blindly follow each other and get packed tightly in a can. Striped bass blaze their own trail and never get packed in a can. Which do you want to be, a sardine or a striped bass?

And the number one reason to shop at your locally owned and operated businesses this holiday season:

1. Give a gift to your community. For evey $100 you spend at a locally owned and operated business, $68 remains in your community to support your friends and neighbors, sponsor a field trip for your local school club, provide after-school or summer activities through your local civic organizations, or upgrade a playground at your community park. The same $100 spent at a national chain leaves $13 in your community to achieve the same things.

Are you really shopping local?

Let's have a serious talk...even toot your own horn, if you like.

I just spent the last two hours looking at shop local videos on YouTube trying to learn what works and doesn't work. Of course, it's Saturday night and I have my Budweiser with me. Budweiser is the only beer I drink and have drank since my college days. I have sampled other beers as long as I can buy them one bottle at a time, but... when I buy to stock my fridge, Budweiser is all you will find.

Then I came across a video where a chef took to task the shop local message. His point was that consumers are driving the shop local message, but are local shop owners practicing what the consumers are preaching? Since he is a chef and owns a restaurant, he pointed out that in his restaurant he carries almost exclusively locally produced beers, wines, and spirits and he suggests them to his diners over the national brands, like Budweiser.

His comment got me thinking on three fronts.

First, as much as I push "buy local", I have been remiss on supporting our local breweries. I have a few decades of brand loyalty to Budweiser, yet I bet the folks at Budweiser couldn't find Delmarva, much less Toddville, on a map. Sure, when I first started drinking beer back in college, there was no such thing as locally produced beers, but now there is. Unless Budweiser gives back to Toddville by sending a couple of ice cold kegs via Clydesdale horses for a community crab feast every year for the next thirty years (my time investment in Budweiser so far), I need to find a comparable locally produced beer. At least I know if I spend my ten bucks every Saturday on a 12-pack of a locally produced beer, $6.80 will stay in my local community, adding to its strength and vitality it so desparately needs. That's a much better investment than the $1.30 that Budweiser leaves for my community. I do want to see those Clydesdales up close so, if Budweiser is listening, I'm willing to negotiate a year-to-year deal.

Second, if you own a restaurant or bar, how much of your inventory is locally produced beers, wines, and spirits and do you often suggest or actively advertise them, like with plenty of signage, verbal suggestions to every customers, or in printed ads?

Third, I figure I have a lot of "brand loyalty" to many basic household items, food, and drinks in addition to my brand loyalty to Budweiser. I need to take a closer look at what I am buying and try to find an acceptable, locally produced alternative. If you are a locally owned and operated business, will you join me in the quest to find locally produced alternatives your customers will love?

This is where you get to toot your own horn. If you are a locally owned and operated producer of goods, tell us. I know I need to find new brands. If you are a locally owned and operated business that sources its products locally, first, tell us. I need to know where to go to experience the true flavor of shopping local. And if you are a shopper who already knows where the great locally owned and operated businesses that offer locally produced goods are, tell us. That's a secret everyone should know!