It’s Small Business Saturday – the day when our local shops are counting on you to lift them out of the red and the into the black for the year.
Founded in 2010, Small Business Saturday was conceived as a way to draw attention to smaller stores which simply can’t compete financially with the doorbuster sales offered by retail giants on Black Friday. Because for businesses large and small, the holiday season can often make or break whether they end the year with a loss (in the red) or with a profit (in the black).
Here at Lowell’s First Look, we’re all in on Small Business Saturday. From the Artist Market to the latest downtown shop, Lowell holds a treasure trove of gift ideas for everyone on our – and probably your – list.
(Actually, we love the idea of Small Business Everyday. Amazon sure is convenient, but if we are able, shopping local seems to be better for everyone involved.)
However, I’d like to take a moment here to specifically put in a good word for those businesses that don’t sell you anything. These are the creatives, the influencers, the photographers and yes, the online news websites that you may enjoy everyday without paying a penny.
Is this editorial self-serving? Absolutely. Because like every other business, Lowell’s First Look has expenses and needs money to stay afloat.
But we are far from the only small business in Lowell that is trying to eke out a living by providing a largely intangible service to the community. Our local photographers are prime examples, and three people immediately jump to my mind.
Think of all the photos that Bruce Doll from Images of Vision freely shares on social media. You could go buy one of his prints at the Lowell Arts Artist Market, but you can also enjoy almost all his work for free online.
Or there’s Justin Scott from Shamrock Photography. You can hire him for senior photos, but he also spends hours at Lowell High School events taking photographs which can be viewed for free through his website and social media.
Ryan Heffron is another Lowell photographer, and he doesn’t just work in Lowell but also captures awe-inspiring images nationwide. Again, you can hire him for a photo session, but I know many of us have enjoyed looking at his images online without paying anything.
So how do you support these businesses that provide you with some measure of enjoyment and ask for nothing in return?
Well, it depends on the business. Some do have physical products that you can buy – such as the merch offered by The Restless Viking. Others provide services such as photo sessions, advertising and newsletters you can sign up for. And many accept tips and donations to support their work. Those options may include sending money directly via Venmo or PayPal, using a service like Ko-Fi, becoming a subscriber on social media or sending “stars” on Facebook.
Of course, there are businesses and creators both large and small in this space. And just like with traditional retailers, supporting your small, local creators is important.
For example, both Brandon Sanderson and Ryder Jones pen fiction. Both would probably appreciate your support. But sending a couple bucks to Sanderson, who had a $41 million Kickstarter campaign, probably doesn’t make much of a difference to him in the grand scheme of things. Using that same money to subscribe to the Westville Substack could be crucial to supporting the work of a local author, though.
So, on this Small Business Saturday, we hope that you will keep in mind the businesses that don’t sell you anything. It’s easy to consume their content for free, but it’s also easy to send them the couple bucks that are lingering in your PayPal or Venmo account.
By supporting local creators and businesses in this way, you are supporting their work and ensuring it will continue to be there for your enjoyment in the future.
How to Get the News in Lowell, Michigan
While I have you here, let me take a moment to put in a plug for Lowell’s First Look specifically.
But first, let’s recap the many ways you can stay updated on the latest local news.
- Sign up for our weekly newsletter. This is the most convenient option. Links to all the week’s stories land in your inbox each Friday afternoon. The only downside is that you might get information about timely events too late to use it.
- Bookmark our website. Many of our readers pop in daily to see what’s new. We publish Monday through Friday and strive to have the morning article up by 7am, with other stories dropping later in the day, depending on our editorial calendar.
- Follow us on social media. We post links to every article we publish on our Facebook and X feeds as well as in stories on Instagram.
- Follow us on MSN. We are a local news partner with MSN so if you get your other news there, you can add us to your followed publishers list.
Free and Cheap Ways to Support Lowell’s First Look
There is no other fully online news source devoted to Lowell, Michigan, and if you like the convenience of being able to read and share local news online, please support our work.
We do get some money from Google Ads and are an Amazon affiliate but those pay a lot less than you might think. Instead, we rely mainly on our local advertisers and the support of readers to pay the bills.
Here are some ways to support Lowell’s First Look on Small Business Saturday without spending much – or any – money.
Send a donation
We are set up to receive donations – which aren’t tax deductible, by the way – through these sites:
I know it feels like everyone is reaching into your pocket at this time of year, and I’m not going to guilt you into a donation. If you don’t have any cash to spare, that’s totally understandable. Lowell’s First Look will keep right on chugging along without it.
But if you do have money to spare, every dollar is appreciated. Not only does it help pay the bills, but it’s also a nice boost to morale and makes sitting through yet another long meeting feel more bearable.
Become a subscriber on Facebook
For 99¢ a month, you can become a subscriber on Facebook. While Facebook gives us the option to provide subscriber perks, we haven’t quite figured out what those could be yet.
So to keep your expectations low, for now, your 99¢ a month only gets you the warm feeling of knowing you are helping to keep local news alive.
Become an advertiser
Have a business that serves Lowell-area customers? Then advertise with us!
Our monthly prices are roughly the equivalent of some other publication’s weekly prices. Our ads come with monthly promotion on Facebook, if you’d like, and we rotate through our advertisers as newsletter sponsors too.
We know that online advertising can be a tough sell for some people. Print advertising provides something tangible that can be clipped and taped to the fridge and stuck on a bulletin board. You don’t get that with an online ad.
However, online ads provide repetition that you just don’t get with print. A reader might flip through a print publication once, potentially not even see your ad and never pick up the publication again. But online ads are seen again and again and again – meaning that when someone is looking for a particular product or service, your name may be what pops into their mind first.
If you want to place an ad, send us an email at [email protected].
(Psst, we are currently running our biggest sale of the year.)
Support our advertisers
And for a totally free way to support Lowell’s First Look, please turn to our advertisers when you have a need they can fulfill. And please let them know that you saw them on Lowell’s First Look.
Because remember how I said that Lowell’s First Look would keep chugging along even if you didn’t make a donation? Well, that’s not true when it comes to our advertisers. Lowell’s First Look could not exist without the support of these businesses which provide the bulk of our revenue.
So, with that in mind, please let these long-time advertisers know you appreciate their support of locally owned and operated news:
Arctic Heating and Cooling
Rick Seese, Greenridge Realty
Amanda Rogers, Rogers Neighborhood Realty
Lowell’s Open Table
Flat River Outreach Ministries
Lowell Arts
Alpha Care Center
Easy Street
Lowell Express
Brookstone Investments
Riverside Dentistry
Earth Star, Heart Root
Regardless of if and how you support Lowell’s First Look, we appreciate your turning to us as your source of comprehensive local news.
Leave a Reply