One of my goals for 2014 is to be more active in promoting and supporting cottage industry, small family businesses, arts and crafts, and markets.
I have set up a page on facebook to help me with this goal, the page is called Support Cottage Industry (ironically..) but trying to get people to help me support them seems to be rather difficult! I ask them to share to help the page get more fans, to add their links and promotions to the page, but it is like getting blood from a stone.. or like getting chocolate out of my hands...
Many of the people i have invited to use the page to help promote their wares, are the very people who oft complain that nobody supports their handicraft endeavours..yet when i try to support them.. they do not seem motivated enough to help me to help them.
Not all businesses that deserve promotion are on facebook, so on the page i created I also add information about bricks n mortar stores, places I have been to that are quality home grown amazing stores, to help to promote them.
To keep cottage industry alive we all need to support them, buy from them, word of mouth promote them. Let us not be the ones five years from now who look with melancholy at a piece of handiwork we bought at a market years ago and say ... ' of course they dont do craft markets anymore, everything is mass produced these days'.....
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