In a time where almost anything, from online reviews to personal identities can be replicated or faked, the importance of maintaining and surrounding ourselves with genuine, trustworthy relationships has never been more crucial.
Over the next couple of years, it will be vital to be part of a community that genuinely prioritizes your well-being, and where you can be confident that your best interests are in mind—something that, realistically, is only achieved by small, and even more so local businesses.
As we all know by now—Loblaws doesn’t care about you, your health, your happiness, or your wellbeing in any capacity, and I hate to break it to ya—neither does Netflix, Anytime Fitness, Facebook, or anything in between. This became painfully apparent during the pandemic; while major corporations maximized their profits, good local businesses focused on ensuring their clients felt safe and supported in a time when they needed it more than ever. While corporate giants saw record profits, small businesses took on more debt to ensure they could continue to provide a safe space for their communities. Not only that, but knowing how much local businesses were suffering we ran additional campaigns to help support local restaurants (like our neighbors To Dine For), to help ensure they’d survive the pandemic - even when we weren’t sure if Raincity was going to.
To the big corporations, you are a number that they want to squeeze as much capital out of as possible. Of course, a small business needs to create capital as well—but for us to do that, we interact with you daily, we collect feedback, we put our clients first, and we mold our services to what our community needs. That’s the power and importance of small businesses, and that is what will be CRUCIAL for our health (both physical and mental) over the coming years.
Supporting Local is a Two-Way Street
Over the past four years, my Disney+ subscription has doubled - and we get notified of these increases via a no-reply email address… Imagine if your local shop tried to pull that off?
I’ve had a lot of conversations over the years of owning multiple small businesses where clients bring up how long they’ve supported Raincity via paying for a membership. Obviously, this is an integral part of our business and I greatly appreciate anyone who chooses to spend their hard-earned $$ with us; but I am also confident in the product we sell.
For a couple hundred dollars a month, we’ve provided not only awesome workout classes, but a local community, lifelong friendships, and likely a higher level of health and fitness than you ever thought you’d achieve - so aren’t we supporting each other?
Unlike the corporate giants, small businesses don’t have the opportunity to profit off you (aka your data) outside of the services you pay us for. And since we typically operate in competitive, location-based industries, we don’t have monopolies that allow us to set our own prices knowing you can’t go anywhere else. You can be confident we’ll never send you a price increase notice from a no-reply email address.
Lastly, it’s a two-way street because local businesses actually care about you, not just how much capital we can generate from you. We’re on the ground and face-to-face with our clients and community; we get joy out of seeing your results and your enjoyment of our products. We do what we do because we love it, and because we love what it allows us to provide to our local clients and community. But in a world where capital is king, this model isn’t sustainable without a little extra help. Thus, the goal of this post is not merely a call to action; it's an invitation to actively participate in nurturing our local communities (and the small businesses that create/support them) so they can thrive as we head into a time where our mental and physical well-being are going to need them more than ever.
HOW TO Show Support for Your Favorite Local Business
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be expanding on each of these ideas, with easy, direct, and actionable things that you can do that won’t cost you a penny but will have a huge benefit for the growth and sustainability of our favorite local businesses. We’re going to link to ways you can directly do these things with Raincity - but we’re sure your favorite local shop has similar options. If you’re a local shop looking to improve your accessibility and communication with your community, feel free to contact us - we’re happy to help :)
Ok we said ‘free’ ways - this one might cost you a little bit, but chances are you already own some gear, so just take an extra second to try to wear that gear more :)
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Local businesses don’t have the advertising budget of the big kids—so getting our logos out there as much as possible is CRUCIAL.
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The likelihood of someone asking you about it and following through to look us up is 10x higher if they see a logo on a friend, as opposed to a billboard.
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Even if people don’t ask you about it, visibility is key—and the more times they see it, eventually, they’ll be curious enough to see what we’re all about - especially if they see what awesome people there are ;)
This one's super simple and massive—again, without the advertising budget, you’ll rarely get spammed with ads from a local business—so every time you like or share something from us is massive.
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Engagement is everything—sitting on your phone doomscrolling? Pop over to your favorite local business account and make sure you’ve liked everything on their feed and even throw down a few comments or tag some friends.
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Regardless of the latest algorithm - they all know that you’re more inclined to be hooked onto something that your friend is already/also interested in - so your comments or shares on a small business post will almost do more for them than if they paid for ads.
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This helps not only drive engagement but LOCAL engagement from your friends and followers, who are much more likely to become clients.
This is always a hard one, we get it - you found your dream community that’s a nice break from your regular circle of friends or work colleagues, and you don’t want to have to go on a waitlist to get into classes. There’s a reason why the big studios (aka Barry’s, Ride, etc) have aggressive (12-24 hour) cancellation policies with no refunds; because they know that their number 1 priority is a full class.
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You can talk about how much you love something, but just like you weren’t hooked until you tried it out - your friends will be the same. Bring them in to try out a class or a sample of whatever product your favorite local shop has.
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There’s no amount of money you can spend at a local business that will match if you refer a handful of friends, who hopefully also become lifelong customers.
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Is there a reason your friends don’t want to join? Well then….
This is probably the most underappreciated one—as we’ve discussed, one of the biggest reasons to support local is because they actually care about you and your feedback.
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Provide constant and constructive feedback, no matter how big or small. It doesn’t mean that things will change because of your comment, but we’re always listening, and if something comes up enough times, we begin to plan changes around it.
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Local businesses provide a local experience - they’re not told what to do by someone in another country which is why they’re able to tailor their product to the needs of their local community - so make sure they what those needs are!
More Info…
Questions?
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Or checkout our FAQ: www.rncty.ca/faq
Feedback?
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Our members can utilize our anonymous feedback form ANYTIME: www.rncty.ca/feedback
(password the same as RAthletes wifi posted in the gym)
Want to try us out?
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Whether you know someone at Raincity or not - schedule your free trial today: www.rncty.ca/join
Want to bring a friend?
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Have them register for a free trial FB class, or just email info and we’ll help you get them setup! www.rncty.ca/free-class