Live, Love Shop Local Dungog Shire is a promotion designed to reduce the outside spend on goods and services, and therefore retain more dollars in our local businesses. It is also designed to help raise awareness as to the importance of supporting locally owned businesses, not only during the campaign but also on an on-going basis.
When you support our local businesses you are not only supporting the local economy and the employment of local people, you are also indirectly supporting your wider local community. Local businesses sponsor and support local community groups, including sports teams, local schools and other initiatives. Most local business owners also live in the Shire and contribute to the local community through volunteering and other in-kind activities.
This year’s Live Love Shop Local Dungog Shire will run from Monday, 1 October to Monday, 29 October, with the draw occurring and winners announced on Wednesday afternoon, 31 October. By shopping in participating businesses and collecting receipts to the value of $100, you will have the opportunity to win a share of $3,000 Dungog Dollars. This money will go back into the community as it needs to be spent at participating local businesses.
This year’s Shop Local Campaign is supported by a small grant which has been given to Dungog Shire Council by the NSW Department of Industry as part of Small Business Month in October. The prize money is being supplied by participating businesses paying a fee of $100 to be involved in the campaign, and sponsorship from an additional three businesses.
Last year the Chamber and Council partnered to stage the very successful inaugural Dungog Shire Business Expo on Saturday, 4 March at the James Theatre, and this was supported by a small grant from the NSW Department of Industry to celebrate Back to Business Week. The Expo benefitted not only local businesses but also some community groups.
Some of you might remember our last very successful Shop Local Campaign, which was conducted from July to September 2013. During that campaign, we distributed approximately 20,000 envelopes and people only needed to collect receipts to the value of $50. Even so, our conservative estimate is that we collected more than $750,000 in receipts spent in local businesses during the campaign.
Ivan Skaines, Council’s Co-ordinator, Economic Development, Tourism and Events has suggested that the campaign might also entice visitors to the area to spend more money in participating businesses, and we are going to promote the campaign widely via local media, including the Dungog Chronicle and Radio Dungog, as well as the Visit Dungog Facebook page, as well as the Chamber social media sites.
For details of participating businesses and full details head to our website www.ddcc.org.au.
Kind Regards,
Jennifer Lewis
President – Dungog District Chamber of Commerce
