To say that it is a strange time would be the understatement of the century. All of a sudden the world as we know it has seemingly slipped through our fingers and ceased to exist. Movie theaters are empty, malls remain closed, schools are on an indefinite hiatus and the mass majority of the world is working from their homes…or trying to figure out ways in which they can. Human interaction has been reduced to your immediate family and maybe the cashier at the grocery store. There are no handshakes or hugs…or even shared sidewalks for that matter. 

We are alone together.

So what do we do? How do we cope? How will we ever bounce back from an idle world?

Well, how do we normally handle hardships in our own daily lives? We turn to our support system: our friends, our family, our colleagues, maybe our church or support group. We lean on them in hopes that a brighter day will follow and that maybe we’ll find ourselves catching our breath again. 

This is no different. Our support system just happens to be each other –  It’s that local coffee shop down the street, it’s your favorite pizza place, it’s the boutique that you frequent, it’s the general contractor and it’s the family owned manufacturer; it’s small business. And the term “small business” is quite misleading. Small businesses make up 99.7% of employers in the U.S. and account for a little more than 44% of economic activity. So where they might be referred to as “small”, their impact is incredibly large. Without small business the economy would not only tank but would literally cease to exist. Our country, our world wouldn’t even have a pulse without us. 

We carry the world on our shoulders.

And with the world on our shoulders, we will support each other – order gift cards online to favorite places, to order takeout from that restaurant across the street, shop online at the local boutique and use social media to refer businesses. We will get through this and when we do, I ask everyone to CONTINUE with this mentality because we are still all in “this” together. Whatever “this” is… life, success, happiness, etc. Support sales, support success, support the dream – don’t stop supporting each other. The support system that we build now needs to become a part of who we are and how we operate. We need to continue this sense of community and bring it with us. We will recover and we will band together, with the world on our shoulders. 

Written by: Kristin DeBias