Dear Editor:
Walking through downtown this week, I was reminded of the strength and resilience of our small businesses.
Despite recent hardships, they’ve innovated and adapted, earning both our support and admiration.
These businesses exemplify the best of our community. Small businesses are better employers, citizens, and neighbors who genuinely care about their communities. Studies show money spent at local small businesses generates three times its value in the local economy through stimulated supply chains, increased employment, and higher tax revenue. In contrast, chain stores return less than 14% of revenue back into the local economy..
Similarly, natural resource extraction by outside corporations offers only temporary infrastructure investment and employment. Most profits flow to big corporations elsewhere, leaving little lasting benefit.
Building diverse small businesses focused on our inherent strengths—rather than relying solely on tourism—makes us more economically resilient. This approach diversifies supply chains, reduces tourism dependence, and stabilizes property costs by keeping wages local, making housing more affordable. This isn’t rejecting tourism, but emphasizing balance and recognizing our community’s broader potential.
We should leverage our existing strengths. Our excellent regional healthcare infrastructure deserves enhancement, not weakening. Decades of geothermal energy experience in food production and heating can spark new product development. Our ranching and forestry heritage can be reinvigorated through supporting smallholder cooperation that built this community originally.
These building blocks can shift our economic future without relying on big corporations or government bailouts.
Change requires work, but here’s how we start:
Shift consumption habits. Reduce purchases from Amazon, Walmart, and other big retailers by 10% this year. Find more durable solutions closer to home. Buy less, but buy better. Make this an annual practice until change becomes automatic.
Support genuinely pro-small business policies. Don’t be fooled by federal, state, and local “pro-business” initiatives that actually benefit big corporations with small business window dressing. Read carefully, stay discerning, and hold politicians accountable.
Start that business you’ve dreamed about. Talk to existing owners, gather knowledge, and put your plan into motion. You’ll find that engagement breeds support. This could be the bravest and most rewarding decision of your life.
The world feels scary and negative right now. Sometimes the best medicine is looking at people closest to you and asking what you can do to help. Small community acts add up and can sustain you through difficult times.
Let’s support our local small businesses and keep moving forward. Our economic future depends on it.
Ed Matlack
