Re-surfacing

Greetings!

I've come up for air. The holiday rush is dying down and I can once again resume blog-ness. It was a very busy season at AV Framing--thank heavens! I hope the same for all the other independent frame shops and local businesses.

As a self-proclaimed "Jeffersonian", I believe each individual should, at some point in their lives, own and operate their own business. Trading your dollars locally, keeps the revenue in your own community. It literally multiplies the value of the money. For instance, when you go to Starbucks for your coffee, that $5 goes off to God-knows-where. But when you spend your $5 at B-Java here in Indianapolis, BJ will deposit that, combine it with others and reinvest it in her own business...or pay herself and her employees, perhaps purchasing your goods too. In turns, several of us small business owners might touch that $5 as it passes through our accounts.

Indianapolis is doing alright these days--not great. Due to an influx of Super Bowl 2012 money and the general poor health of its residents, there are lots of building cranes around town...mostly for hospitals. But a quick drive through the city center reveals when this was a boom-town. In the first couple decades of the last century, Indianapolis was wealthy--very wealthy. There was local industry, sure. But what Brian and I contend is that there was also a small local business on every corner. Those shopkeepers turned those $5 into beautiful homes and neighborhoods. They built the city, in essence. We live in one of those homes still.

So I was emboldened by locally-spending clients this year and I shall move that money around to other local businesses like:
Pogues Run Grocer (Indianapolis' only food co-op)
B-Java Coffee and Tea
Indy Winter Farm Market
La Parada
Sunset Acres Farm
...and many more

There's my economic re-surfacing advice. Stay away from Walmart and Starbucks and Target and the giant bank-du-jour. They will take your money out of your community and save it all for themselves. Therefore, it doesn't really pay you to save a couple bucks at a big box store. It actually costs the community you live in.

Thus concludes the soapbox speech.
Thank you (bows)

Sarah