15/08/2026
My Belief About Local Businesses
One of my biggest beliefs is that community is one of the most powerful forms of marketing. 🤝
When I owned my hair and beauty salon, it was around 15 miles from where I lived. Looking back, I believe that made building the business much harder than it needed to be.
I wasn’t part of that community. I didn’t shop there. I didn’t know the neighbouring business owners. I didn’t have children at the local school. I wasn’t seeing people at the supermarket or the gym. I wasn’t naturally building relationships outside of work.
Every day I travelled in, often stressed after sitting in traffic, worked all day, then travelled home. It felt like I was always arriving and leaving. I never truly became part of the community.
If I had opened that same business where I actually lived—where people knew me, where my son went to school, where I’d already built relationships and where I’d spent years becoming part of the local community, I genuinely believe the business would have grown much faster.
That’s why I believe local businesses should never underestimate the power of community.
People naturally like supporting people they know, the parent from the school gates, the person they see at the gym, someone they met through networking, the local business owner they always chat to, or the volunteer they recognise.
Trust is built long before someone becomes a customer. 🌱
Social media should help strengthen those real-life relationships, not replace them.
Become visible within your community, build genuine relationships, and remember that local marketing is about people first and algorithms second.