I’m sometimes asked why I decided to start a business given all of the risks, uncertainty, and high rate of failure. While there are several positive reasons like creating something that is your own, deciding how to make your living, and the interaction with loads of interesting people, the biggest reason is to positively impact my community through local investment. With the holiday season upon us, I truly appreciate having access to so many wonderful local Austin shops to choose from to find the perfect gifts for loved ones and maybe, just maybe a few things for myself.  As a local business owner, I am always blown away by our supportive customers. It’s truly so awesome and one of the most rewarding, heart warming aspects of our business. Many of you may be surprised to know the impact that shopping locally has on the community. If you spend $100 at a local business, roughly $68 stays in your local economy. If you spend the same amount at a large business, only $43 stays in the local economy. At Nannie Inez we are well aware of this and it is part of our goal to grow with our community by spending our business capital locally at every opportunity.

In this spirit, I wanted to share with you some of the ways your support of Nannie Inez is spread throughout our Austin economy.  Although I don’t know exactly how or where other local businesses spend their dollars in the community, I’m 100% sure that their story is very similar to ours.

- Hiring local graphic designers and photographers for marketing

- Purchasing shopping bags, wrapping paper and gift boxes through Trophy Paper, a local business

- Purchasing gift certificates, price tags, post cards, product labels and stationary for love notes to our customers are printed at McCarthy Print, a local business

- Purchasing merchandise for sale in the store from a number of local designers

- We outsource the cleaning of the shop to a local cleaning service

- We outsource our bookkeeping and accounting to a local company

- We buy more plants and flowers from The Great Outdoors, a local company

- Your sales tax stays in Austin benefiting public services and schools

- Most importantly, we invest in our associates’ personal income

Just a little something we think is rarely discussed, but invaluable to the growth of a positive community.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes