Help Rebuild Your Local Economy By Shopping Small For The Holidays

Looking back at January 2020 we here at Casa Vilora Interiors had a grand vision for the year. Take a look at our blog post ushering in the new year 2020. Like any good CEO, I had big plans, and of course, planned for potential risks and down times.

As much as I planned, I could not have foreseen what 2020 would unfold. No one saw this coming.

Living Room Vignette Featuring Our Blue And White Chinoiserie Ginger Jar

At the beginning of the pandemic, my first concern was for my family, friends and clients. I was in constant prayer for everyone's safety and for the doctors and scientists to figure out quickly what we were dealing with. I immediately jumped into action in my own business and figured out ways to continue to support my clients. We relaunched our Virtual Design Consultations, as we know that our clients were now having to adjust to working from home and homeschooling their children.

I was also very concerned about the designers that I mentor and wanted to make sure that they were equipped to keep business coming in. You may not know that I run a design mentorship community of over 5000 designers, stagers, design students and architects worldwide. I offer one-on-one mentoring, courses, programs, videos and a very resourceful Facebook Group to support them as they grow the business side of their practices. Together with one of my amazing clients, we launched an eDesign contest that provided cash prizes. I also offered lots of discounted and free one-on-one mentoring sessions to help build their confidence and provide ideas and resources on how they could continue to market their businesses.

I have been so blessed to see a great increase in my own business, and many of my designer colleagues have said the same thing. It is great to know that the earlier fears and concerns we had about the design industry never materialized. I know that the first few weeks of the lock down had us all innovating and looking for new ways to support our clients. We had staff salaries and overhead expenses to keep paying for. Thankfully we are mostly doing well, as clients are now seeing their homes with new eyes, and using them in much different ways, and need our help more than ever.

Gift Certificates Available

But with the holidays approaching, I started to think about all the other local businesses who were, and some still are on complete lockdown, and have drastically lost income. Some are hanging on by a thread and in danger of permanently closing their doors.

As we all know, our local small businesses are vital for a healthy local economy. Without them, our standard of living as we know it will substantially diminish.

I think about the businesses that have been hit hard by the riots, looting and fires, and I wonder if they will ever come back. I pray that they do. A lot of people depend on local small businesses for their livelihoods, and it is time that we think about how we can help - in any small way that we can

So this holiday, if you plan to do any shopping, why not look at small businesses first - whether they are ones in your local area or online - for both products and services.

Choose handcrafted gifts

Gift family and friends with gift certificates from your favorite local businesses

Gift family and friends with a consultation from a local service professional

Cater your Thanksgiving and Christmas meals - at least partially

Pick up flowers more regularly from a local florist

Hire food trucks for your next event

See if your favorite small businesses have online stores

Consult with a local pro on a DIY project you will be working on

Hand made soaps and personal items

Candles

Meal deliveries

Our Seasonal Inspiration Room For The Fall. Shop the Items In This Room

We now have an online store with a wide range of home decor, homewares and furnishings. We have curated some of our favorite finds and inspirations from past projects, and we are making it easy for you to shop these items from the comfort of your own home. Take a look HERE. You can even purchase a gift certificate if you don't know what to get the person who has everything

Check Out Our Shop the Room Feature

This may come as no surprise to you, but large companies like Amazon made billions of dollars more than they normally would during the lockdown. I understand why. They have made shopping easy and very convenient and that makes our shopping experience that much better. But what can be missing is that personal touch that you will most likely get with small businesses.

You get not only that personal touch, but the satisfaction of helping a small business keep their doors open

A friend of mine posted the above graphic on Facebook, and it is really what prompted this post.

Now is the time to be a bit more thoughtful about where you spend your money. Now is the time to go out of your way to support a local small business and help them work through what has been a difficult year for us all.

And just like the graphic says, if you are into some of the things we're into, check out the online store HERE. You receive 15% off your very first order

We are adding new products to the store daily, so check in often.

Be sure to join our email list to stay up to date with new products and promotions.

If you don't see what you're looking for in the store, or you see an item in one of our fabulous rooms that you don't see in the store, reach out to us via the chat feature at the bottom right corner of our website. We will try to make it happen

Share some other ideas of how we can all support small business this holiday season. We would love to hear

Wishing You Beauty And Inspiration!

Veronica