Local businesses are community bedrock
Shopping local is a story that bears retelling: local businesses put money back into the community via commercial property taxes, payroll taxes, sales taxes and salaries, charitable donations, community sponsorships and more. When consumers buy local, the ripple effect spreads from your cash registers to your community. And when consumers cut back, it can be detrimental to independent business owners.

Enlist consumers to save local economy three stores at a time
The 3/50 project was started as a way to save main street businesses. The 3/50 project is a movement that unites small business and consumers in stabilizing their local economy by encouraging consumers to choose three independently owned businesses and spend $50 a month between them.

Cinda Baxter, retail consultant and professional speaker, conceived the idea and wrote about it on her blog, www.alwaysupward.com in 2009. When the post about the value of shopping local went viral, small business owners inundated Baxter with requests for more in-store resources to tell their communities how it works. Baxter published the 3/50 project Web site to give business owners marketing and educational tools to inform consumers about the value of shopping main street.

The 3/50 project Web site provides a variety of free resources to business owners to educate customers about their stake in local businesses, including flyers, Web banners, store signs, public service announcements, press releases, and more.

Tell your customers to spend it where it counts
"With a tag line 'Save your local economy three stores at a time,' the project goal is to promote shopping in locally owned businesses while thanking customers for the positive impact that decision has on a local economy," said Baxter. "Fifty (dollars) comes from the idea that if even half the employed population spent a mere $50 per month in locally owned retail stores, those purchases would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue," she continues. "That's a huge impact for a relatively small investment."

The 3/50 project continues to grow

• Since its launch in 2009, 3/50 project campaigns have appeared in hundreds of U.S. and international communities.
• The 3/50 project has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, Women Entrepreneur, CNN, Forbes and other media outlets.
• As of May 7, 2010, there were 57,864 'fans' registered on the 3/50 project Facebook page.
• And nearly 20,000 small businesses owners have registered at the 3/50 project Web site to show their support for the project and other independent businesses like their own.

Visit www.the350project.net for more information.