Local Business Shout Out for Small Business Saturday

This past Saturday we celebrated Small Business Saturday. This is a time to get out, support, and recognize local businesses in our community. It's also an opportunity for small businesses to support other small businesses.

In effort to help get my name out there, I planned to set a goal to pass out business cards everywhere I went on my errands on Saturday. Whether it was a community bulletin board or even a cashier, it seemed like a good plan. However, that plan quickly changed with an impromptu trip to a local, family-owned zoo to do some Christmas shopping.

Since it was late November, park hours and attractions are limited, and most animals are residing in their on-site shelters and habitats for the winter. But the zoo manages to stay open year-round, even with limited income. And the fact that most of their animals remain on-site, I couldn't help but wonder how they survive during the off season. Perhaps with all the ticket sales that are sold in the Spring and Summer they are able to tuck some off for the off season's operation costs.

On March 13th, 2012, a fire broke out in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, MA, which resulted in a widespread power outage, which consumed blocks upon blocks of businesses and restaurants. The outage spread from the Theater District, Chinatown, Kenmore Square, and the South End. As a result, much of the food that restaurants stored weren't kept at the proper temperature or was not up to code or safe to serve to the public once power was restored to the area. Most restaurants did what they only could do, and that was to purge all the spoiled food. However, the Capitol Grille on Boyston St. donated all of its raw meat to the tigers at Southwick's Zoo.

Of course competition is good for the economy and forces businesses to offer competitive, affordable pricing This is a perfect example of one small business helping another. I was reminded of this story when visiting the zoo myself this past Saturday, which also inspired this blog post.

So rather than spending Small Business Saturday trying to promote myself, I decided to recognize another local business. I can tell my story another time. Part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur and business owner is to recognize other entrepreneurs and other small businesses. And while I would love to visit the tigers and other animals, since I am a huge animal lover at heart, I think I'll wait until the Spring and just visit the gift shop for the holiday season.


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