Due to COVID-19, the effects of a major pandemic is felt globally. To say the least, it has been catastrophic in economic terms and human lives. It’s a tough time for most people. Many small businesses are the most hurt though, as they might not necessarily have the capacity to weather the economic storm.
However, it’s during times like these that people find it worthwhile to support these types of businesses. Rather than patronizing multi-national conglomerates, there are many reasons why you might want to buy from a small, family-run business instead. These are the reasons why we think there is more value on these types of businesses than a big franchise corporations right now.
1. Customer Service
A big corporation with massive sales volume will start to threat the customer like a number.
With smaller companies, there is typically more room for negotiations to occur. Even after sales, if you are left dissatisfied you can always attempt to go for a settlement that works for both parties. With services from a major corporations, unless you’re an important customer, your bad experience will usually fall on deaf ears.
Most importantly, you know that there’s a face behind a family-run business and not just robots with automated replies. For a small business, every customer is important.
2. Stability and Commitment
With a family-operated business, the employees are likely to be family members as well. In a tightly-knitted organization, even if those that aren’t related will most likely be treated as such. This translates to low employee turnover and a motivated work crew. Like the service provided to you? You’ll likely be served by the same person the next time you go there. In a big corporation, employees might not be compensated deservingly. That’s scarcely an issue when everyone knows each other well.
Because of the family-run implications, the business likely is what’s keeping food on the table. Therefore, the employees are encouraged to keep the business flowing. This means that members of the business will spend extra effort to provide quality service and improve customer relations.
3. Community
Perhaps most crucially, the performance of your local business directly implicates your community. It’s not just supporting local growth, because local businesses that do well want to give back to the community that supports it. Rather than a conglomerate that just donates to a major charity that might not be efficient or have a major impact in your location. Small, family-run businesses have to spend their money carefully and ensure there’s a local impact for their contribution. They may donate less, but the immediate result is palpable in your community.
Bottom Line
There’s no better way to understand the importance of keeping a family-operated business than running one yourself. Lebada Motors dealership is one such example, being managed and run by the Lebada Brothers (Hicham and Andy). Every staff member is family or treated equally. To this date, Lebada Motors has donated over $160,000 to various charities in the Waterloo region. Rather than making promises, we’d much rather prove it firsthand.