The Wall Street Journal featured a story recently that held some tremendous promise for Sacramento Area small businesses.  The article titled “Three Best Ways to Win Community Support” outlines the some opportunities that small businesses can create or take advantage of.  I think these are particularly ripe for those businesses around the Sacramento community.   First off, a recent trend in small business marketing has been to develop community around your products and services.  Community i... marketsmall Scott Eggert 2009-11-24T15:58:36Z 2009-11-24T15:58:36Z

savemidtown, I like your thinking. Especially in those areas you have cited where an ever increasing percentage of the patrons are from the neighborhood, it is advisable even more so that the owners engage the community. That is in fact why we locate businesses in these areas is it not? Owners that neglect the community in which they live not only miss out on a great opportunity, but actually do great harm to their bottom line. As you have pointed out, people notice.

Scott Eggert 2009-11-24T15:58:36Z savemidtown 2009-11-22T17:54:06Z 2009-11-22T17:54:06Z

Another winning strategy for any businessis to contribute time or $ or at least a space for a community bulletin board and advocate for causes they beleive in that complement the neighborhoods in which they do business. For example, In the central city, almost 2/3 of patrons are also neighbors so getting involved in neighborhood liveability issues is a huge bonus and doing really simple things like keeping the outside of your business free of litter and graffiti and keeping a few exterior lights on overnight make a huge difference. I am much more likely to patronize a business if I know they are also a good neighbor. As an example, I no longer patronize any businesses owned by a particular popular restauranteur because they are very disrespectful to the surrounding neighbors, and many of my neighbors feel the same way. Wheras I go out of my way to patronize a particular boutique on 19th because the owners are excellent neighbors. Being a good neighbor goes a long way.

savemidtown 2009-11-22T17:54:06Z