When shopping at small businesses, people tend to focus on the seemingly hiked up price of an item. Their minds jump to thoughts of a cheaper option on Amazon. But what they always end up overlooking is the time, money and courage that it takes to start a business. Especially if this business requires a hand crafted inventory.

The cost of a product can be difficult to understand when looking at the price tag alone. More often than not, the price tag attached to a product represents many components. This includes the materials, labour, and extra indirect costs associated with this item.

A price tag alone cannot provide us with all the information needed to make an informed decision about the true cost of a product.

Tricky Labour Evaluation

Owning and running a small business is challenging. It can include taking on many jobs that big businesses hire an entire staff to do. This gets trickier with the task of hand crafting an entire stock.

These jobs range from tasks like finding local suppliers, creating the item, photographing the item. Alongside advertising tasks like social media management. All this and more on top of managing their own online and in person stores.

At first glance, you may only notice the time cost invested into creating the product. You may even recognize the laundry list of other tasks small business owners have.

But there is even more to consider: It is very important to take into account the risks and impacts. For example, the different requirements of labour. This includes physical, mental and emotional labour. As well, the danger risks associated with creating the final product.

Starting your own small business also requires a lengthy planning stage. Accumulating the skills necessary to make this business possible requires a large investment. Time and money are both needed to make this happen.

As well, there are required trial and error phases to perfect the product. This is all classified as indirect labour. This is difficult to account for because of the lack of a definitive scale to measure its monetary value.

Why it is important to support these brands

By supporting these brands, you can help to encourage and maintain fair wages for the small business community.

This will create an echo effect in resisting exploitation in undervalued labour. This often happens in industrial factories such as sweat shops. Funding and supporting different businesses and communities allow them to thrive.

When you choose to support your favourite handmade items, you help foster a long line of inspiration and creativity for generations to come.

Voting with your dollar will allow and encourage people to follow their dreams and make a living through their passions. This creates a sense of achievement in your local community.

How Locate Local Can Help

The Locate Local App can help you to connect to your local community and find your new favourite stores and restaurants. This app will provide you with a means to meet your local business owners.

Through knowing these owners, you can better understand the products and where they came from. This provides you with a direct line of communication and customer service.

Next time you’re looking at a handmade item trying to decide if it’s worth the splurge, remember all that happens behind the scenes. Consider that by spending an extra couple bucks at a local business rather than Walmart, you are helping to keep someone’s dream afloat, and uplifting your community.

Because in the end, it is not just a pair of earrings or a vase, it is a symbol of passion and creativity.