One of our readers asked that I write an article on the subject of supporting small business, particularly black owned businesses, and the notion that friends and family should be on the forefront supporting small businesses. So here we are! The popularized concept, of course, is that friends and family should be quick to support small businesses. This is by trying to counteract the lack of support for black businesses, how ‘someone’ is likely to support the baby shower or wedding of someone more than their small business. Support in this context is not that of moral support in letting a person know that you are behind them all the way, but it is about actually buying a service or product over that of another business.
This is a noble activism; however it has a couple of loopholes that I would like to deal with in this writing. There is nothing wrong with enforcing that people should support small businesses, actually; please support my small business. I need all the support I can get. There are problems with the following though:
1. Emotionally blackmailing people.
Some people in the quest to mobilize people to support small businesses actually blackmail people to buy their products. I don’t know about you but in my experience a great client base cannot be built on blackmail. Blackmail has an expiry date, one day the people will not care about your emotional blackmail no more. I assume that when you start a business you are creating a business that will grow and will be able to stand the test of time. Well, such a business is built on a solid client base not support clients that were blackmailed.
2. Expecting ‘support’ clients to be your core clients.
In my entrepreneurial journey, I have learnt that when we start a business, we get to have what I call support clients. These are clients that rally behind you at the beginning of your business, they buy what you offer not because they really need what you offer, but because they are giving you a pat on the back. They are there to motivate you but they are not really your target market. Imagine a man who hates vegan food going to dine at a vegetarian restaurant opened by a friend. That man will not be a regular at the restaurant because he just went there to support the friend. To say well done, ‘I am proud of you and your hustle’.
3. Are they your target market?
When we create anything, the question of who your target market is should be at the top. Whether or not something thrives depends on its target market. If there is no market, then there is no value creation which means no one will consume it. So before we expect our friends and family to support us, we should ask ourselves if they are our target market. An example is that if your friends can’t afford a R5000 belt, then they are not your target market. And therefore cannot ‘support’ your business.
4. Mediocre product
It is unfortunate that small businesses are known for their horrible service and their inability to treat customers in the way that customers should be treated. We cannot advocate for people to keep on supporting our businesses if all we give them is bad service or that the product itself is not as we promised when we advertised. If people do not get value for their money, they are at liberty to go where they will. No one continues to stay where their expectations are not meant. The ones who do so just set themselves up for perpetual disappointment. So, while we cry support us, we should also ask if our value proposition meets the expectations of those we say should support us.
In a nutshell, our businesses should have clearly defined target markets and we should work to penetrate that market so we could build a solid client base. We should think long term about it. If you had done a research and had people say they will support you, if they don’t when the time comes, please know they are not obliged to. Continue to carve your place in the market. Support for black businesses should also be met by readiness to provide value for the clients’ money. In the absence of such, blackmail will lend you one client or two and is not a sustainable marketing tactic.