Micro Business Owners Are a Unique Breed — Let's Help Each Other
If you're a micro business owner, I'm willing to bet you strongly identify with a lot of the following: resilient, persistent, passionate, adaptable, self-disciplined, self-motivated, goal-oriented, humble, an effective communicator, financially aware. Did I just describe you to a tee? That's because entrepreneurs whose core value is service are truly a unique breed, and it takes one to know one.
Is a common comment from your friends and family, "I don't know how you do it all"? Do you wake up in the middle of the night to grab a notebook so the next great idea doesn't slip? If so, you're one of my people. And I think we should be helping each other.
Here are five ways micro business owners can practically support each other — most of which cost very little except the willingness to reach out.
Cross-promotion
Recommending each other's products and services is the simplest and most common way small businesses support each other, and it still works. Beyond the standard referral, you can:
- Share promotions — a discount for locals on a certain day, or coupons for other vendors in your shop or on your website.
- Collaborate on giveaways. A joint raffle is a favorite. I saw a chamber of commerce coordinate one where a purchase at any participating shop entered you into a raffle where every prize was donated by another local business. Everyone won.
The magic isn't the mechanic. It's the fact that customers of your peers are already primed to trust small businesses like theirs — and yours.
Joint products or services
Are two heads better than one? A lot of products and services naturally go together. Whether you bundle existing offerings or co-create something new, the combined result is often more valuable than the sum of the parts. One plus one making three.
A few shapes this takes:
- Bundles or gift sets — a candle maker and a soap maker packaging together.
- Subcontracting for a turn-key project so the customer only has to talk to one of you.
- Co-development — sharing the cost of building something new and later sharing the profit.
Even a small "artwork designed by [name]" credit on your marketing helps a peer get their name out. Credit costs you nothing and it means real business to the person you credited.
Shared resources and space
Splitting costs can put things in reach that neither of you could afford alone. Some ideas:
- Share rental equipment.
- Book one photographer for a joint session so you both get marketing images.
- Sublet space you're not using — either a portion of your shop, or during hours you're closed.
- Share storage.
- Combine orders and deliveries to hit tiered pricing.
Anywhere there's a minimum fee, there's an opportunity to team up.
Joint events and initiatives
Co-hosted workshops, themed pop-up markets, sponsored community events — all of these attract more people than any one of you could pull on your own, and the cost is shared.
A shape I love: a service provider running a small workshop inside a local shop. A caterer teaching how to build a charcuterie board at a small grocer that carries all the components — and partnering with a local woodcrafter to showcase their cutting boards. Three businesses, one event, everyone visible to the others' customers.
Mentoring
This one is a stretch for some folks. I get it. You work hard for every lead — why would you help someone who could end up as competition?
Two things I suspect are true:
- There is almost always enough business to go around if you're in a critical industry.
- Being seen as the leader in your field comes as much from the satisfaction of your customers as from your reputation among your peers.
Be willing to share your secrets. Give advice. Help other owners problem-solve. It doesn't even have to be someone in your exact industry — the knowledge you have about running a small business well is probably more valuable to most people than the tricks of your particular trade.
The discernment question
Here's the honest one: who is another small business owner you'd love to work with — and what's one small thing you could collaborate on?
Take them out for coffee. Brainstorm. See where it goes. Micro business owners already do the hard part. What's missing is often just the willingness to reach across the street.
Prefer to listen? Find the episode here.