Announcing: The Black Friday Challenge

Justin Cresswell — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:22:20 +0000

The Capital Region Independent Business Alliance is proud to announce our first ever Black Friday Challenge.

What’s the challenge? Make Black Friday GREEN! Take the holiday dollars you plan to spend this year – especially on Black Friday – and focus on spending them with local retailers and restaurants. We’re creating a free, on-line directory of local retailers and restaurants at CapitalRegion.com, so whether you’re a retailer or a consumer – we want to hear from you today at CapitalRegion.com! Its free, it’s easy, and it’s waiting for you now.

Consumers – Fill our our on-line form for consumer information, and we will notify you as local shopping info develops this Christmas.

Retailers – Fill out our on-line form for retailers, and we will add your information free of charge.

How does this make the day Green, you ask? Great question! This works for all of us in two big ways.

For the environment – Spending with local independent businesses is good for the environment. Local, community-based businesses are human-sized. They consume less land, carry more locally-made products, locate closer to residents and create less traffic and air pollution.

For the economy – Green is also the color of money, right? Every dollar we spend at locally owned, independent businesses returns 3 times more money to our local economy than one dollar spent at a chain or a big box giant.

The bottom line is this – how your spend your money makes a real difference for all of us, no matter who you are. Take five minutes today and do your part at CapitalRegion.com.

Business Council’s New Service Raises Questions, Well Maybe Just One Question

Justin Cresswell — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:36:44 +0000

The Times Union Newspaper this morning is reporting that The Business Council of NYS (a fine organization) has started a hotline to “help its small-business members cut through state and local red tape.” Need we say more about the climate for small and medium sized business in this region? SMB operators rarely have time to spend fighting government for answers to the many questions posed by the near-byzantine set of laws and regulations which frame the environment in which they operate. Every hour spent in those efforts is an hour that either can’t be spent growing and nurturing their business, or – more likely – it is an hour burned on a night or weekend which might be otherwise spent.

So, at the very least, even if you can’t change the laws and regulations of state and local governments, frequent your local independent businesses. That’s our core message. That’s our only message.

The CRIBA Blog :: Live Local, Buy Local » SMB

Announcing: The Black Friday Challenge

Business Council’s New Service Raises Questions, Well Maybe Just One Question