I have seen decreases in the spending habits of people first hand – market sales have been down by half in some cases. It takes community to enable small businesses to succeed. So I started with the Mission Local facebook group (now at 3200 members) to give makers in Mission a place to promote themselves but the posts tended to get buried quickly. So I created the missionlocal.ca website where I have been gradually adding people and their businesses. Last year I created a map of farm stands and flower stands in Mission and some of the adjoining communities (like Hatzic Prairie). This year I focussed more on makers. I went to farmers markets and talked with local vendors. At first I gave them my contact info but I soon realized that they get so busy with setting up and tearing down that they would lose or forget about my hand out. So I started taking pictures of them with their wares and getting their contact info so I could add them to the site right away.
I also posted invitations to all home grown local businesses on various Facebook groups (Mission Neighbours BC, Mission Farmers Market, Mission Makers, Mission BC Neighbours etc) I got a few people that way. On top of that I met with some “downtown” businesses.
Currently I have 31 businesses on the site, 5 more that I am waiting for information from and I am waiting for the Farmers Market to send out a letter to all their members. I unfortunately did not think of getting them to send a letter until later and they do not seem to be very speedy.
My plan is to continue to work on this on my own time. Having the costs of the domain and hosting allows me to keep the site running. https://www.missionlocal.ca/
