The algorithm has shown me a lot of posts recently about small and single-person businesses closing down. I must have interacted with a singular announcement and poof, all I seem to see is ‘with regret we’re closing our doors…’
There a eleventy billion reasons why a business might close, not all of them financial, but it got me thinking about the ways I try to support small local businesses and independent creators in my sphere. And I came up with more types of support than I’d expected, so I thought I’d share them. Every tip is more effective than liking an Instagram post as you scroll by at thirty miles per hour without reading the caption, but doesn’t involve applying for bank loan to buy an eight-foot sculpture/gold-embossed hardcover/six-tier wedding cake. So save this post, print it to keep in your purse, send it to your friends, et cetera.
Spending Zero Pounds
To start, the completely free ways to provide practical support. (Properly free ways, not sign-up-for-a-free-trial-with-your-card-details-knowing-you’ll-forget-to-cancel-free.)
Subscribe to the creator’s newsletter or blog (aka, avoid the algorithm)
If you would genuinely consider buying or re-buying a product or service from an independent creator or business, find their non-algorithmic news and communications platform and follow it. The creator might have a public blog site like WordPress or Substack, a newsletter you can sign up to through a form or a Patreon page with free membership.
Why this helps support your favourite shops and creators
Putting aside the ethics of Meta or X – yes I did just finish reading Careless People – social media is not remotely a good way to stay in touch with dedicated customers. It’s a decent way to find new customers, but the algorithmic nature of social media platforms means that most posts aren’t seen by people following the account. So if a creator has news to share that a genuine customer might want to see (sales, opening time changes, new product launches) they’ll put it somewhere that lands in an email inbox. Because inboxes – for the most part – still show emails in the order they were sent. Creators can also include links and more text in newsletters, blogs and Patreon posts than they can on social media, so there’s no faffing with ‘click the link in my bio.’ It’s easy to compile and send important info and it’s easy to receive it.
Unlike social media, it’s relatively unusual to use a newsletter follower count to show off, so you’re not building your favourite creator’s ‘brand’ by clicking subscribe or follow. You’re ensuring that when they have news that you’d be interested in, you’ll be able to see it – and share it easily. Which brings us to…
Tell your friends
… or anyone who’ll listen. I bought a pair of dungarees from My Goth Aunt a couple of years ago and they’re a conversation-starter. Mostly because they’re lilac with cobweb illustrations and therefore REALLY COOL. But partly because when someone says ‘nice dungarees!’ I say ‘thanks they’re handmade from a shop in Frome called My Goth Aunt!’ I did pay for the dungarees in the first place, sure, but I bought them because I needed new trousers. The unhinged enthusiasm for talking about where I got them from came later. I’ve probably recommended the shop to at least ten people the by now, and that’s ten actual people, not ten users on Facebook found via targeted ads.
Why this helps support your favourite shops and creators
If you enjoy a product or service and you have friends, family or colleagues with similar interests then you’re doing them a favour to talk about that thing. It might be a YouTube channel about Dungeons and Dragons, it might be a wine bar in your local town, it might be a new mobile hairdresser who specialises in your hair type. You’re supporting the business or creator by passing on the brand name, the contact details, the business card. And the person you’re telling is more likely to spend money if the brand came recommended by a real human.
Spending Some Pounds
Ultimately if you want a business to survive, you will have to spend money there. I don’t like capitalism either, but for the purposes of this post let’s assume it’ll continue for a while yet. But like I said, you don’t have to compromise your own financial security to support a business. If all a business sells is luxury paper at £20 per sheet plus postage, there’s a chance that you or I aren’t the intended customer and we should leave that business to its intended audience of, presumably, the Kardashians and minor royalty. But most small businesses and indie creators will offer at least one of the following ways to support them without compromising your rent or council tax bill.
Miniatures.
Key chains, badges, stickers, bookmarks… if a business sells something physical, high in quality and appropriately highly priced, like beautiful ceramics or stunning art commissions, then they might also sell a lower-ticket variation. They are often literally smaller than the expensive pieces, hence why I always end up calling them miniatures. I have a lot of five-by-seven or six-by-four art prints on my wall because I can’t afford the original hand-finished lino-cut A3 beauty I originally spotted. If the business you want to support is bricks-and-mortar, take a look at their menu or stock pages to figure out their equivalent ‘miniature’ item. It’s might be a particular menu or service package, or a commission sheet for less complex artwork.
Why this helps support your favourite shops and creators
Regular sales equals regular income, obviously, although a business will usually have to sell a lot of coffees to make the equivalent of, say, a private evening hire. But miniatures are often portable and, if they’re the sort you wear or take out of the house, you’re advertising the brand just by going about your day – I’ve recommended the sellers of the badges I sewed into my favourite jacket dozens of times. Almost more importantly, miniatures are giftable. Am I buying sculptures or oil paintings for my friends? No. Am I buying them stickers and bookmarks? Yes. Am I bringing a new audience member and potential customer to that business through gifting? Also yes.
Tip Jars
A lot of indie creators will have a digital tip jar. It might be on a site like Ko-Fi or Buy Me a Coffee, it might be embedded in a sidebar (ahem ahem).
Why this helps support your favourite shops and creators
£3 here and there might not pay an electric bill or studio rent, but it will contribute to a creator’s overall income and trust me that will be appreciated. Plus a lot of digital tip jars have comments sections where you can write nice things about the creator. That is a) a pleasant morale boost for the creator and b) encouraging of others to leave tips too.
Lower-Tier Membership
We’ve all been there: someone cool runs a Kickstarter for a fun project or launches a Patreon to support themselves, and the lowest priced tier they offer is £20. That’s not affordable if you’re on minimum wage, or if your bills fluctuate, or if twenty quid is all you have left after your necessities are paid. And if a creator you love only offers a not-really-low-priced tier, then alas I cannot help you. (Unless you send them this, I guess.)
But a lot of creators do offer genuinely low priced tiers for membership platforms or Kickstarter campaigns. They might not advertise it – the tier might not be the one with the most exciting rewards, and of course they’d prefer you to spend more – but they’re often there: single-digit options, genuinely less money per month or per project than the cost of a single trip to Starbucks.
I actually offer lower memberships myself. I write young adult books, and I know that young adults aren’t reliably swimming in expandable income. So I offer a couple of Patreon memberships for £5 or less per month. A teen who loves my work can ask a parent for a membership to my page without the parent thinking ‘do I need to dip into the university fund,’ and a casual reader who wants to keep up with my stuff can join without worrying that they’re making a huge commitment. If there’s a creator you love who uses a membership platform – it could be Substack, Patreon, Kofi – have a nose on their page. You might be surprised at the affordability of membership options they offer.
Why this helps support your favourite shops and creators
There’s a reason big tech wants you to subscribe to stuff instead of buy it outright – subscriptions keep cash flowing and bills paid. Unlike big tech, small businesses and independent creators actually offer you something fun and useful in return as opposed to an ever-more-enshittified computer programme with AI add-ons you didn’t ask for. And unlike big tech, small businesses and indie creators are paying contractors, paying tax bills and using the cushion of regular subscriptions to focus on providing more of whatever it is they make or do.
And that’s it. Or that’s everything I thought of in the space of the half day I took between conceiving and scheduling this post, anyway. What are your favourite ways to support indie businesses and creators? Are there any obvious ways I’ve missed? Let me know in a comment!
Look after yourselves,
Francesca
Thanks for reading. If you’ve been looking for a corner of the internet without yelling, algorithm-gaming or debating who’s got the most accurate and/or worthy take on an issue, you’re in the right place. Hit the subscribe button to stay in touch and if you’d like to put reality on pause for a bit, check out my novels and films. To support independent, human-created art and thinking and hold actual conversations with fellow readers, join my wonderful Patreon community or hit up the tip jar. See you in the comments for a chat.
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