For the last two years, we’ve put together an annual report which summarizes what we’ve accomplished for the year with the help of our public and nonprofit partners, our thoughts and plans on where we are headed, and overall trends which impact the small businesses we support. This has been a time for us to reflect and reset at the beginning of the year, looking at goals and asking ourselves again, “How can we best serve our communities?”
As a mission and values-based company serving public and nonprofit entities, we have an innate drive to think about our “why?”. It is the question we ask ourselves during sales meetings, it permeates our strategic planning, and is the reason the company was founded. At our core, we exist to support small businesses. We think about what “local” means when we serve communities from California to New York. For us, supporting a small business means your dollars are helping pay for swimming lessons for an entrepreneur’s child. It means your dollars support the salary of someone living in your community, who volunteers at the food bank and who sits next to you in church. The sales tax that you spend goes directly back to pay for the streets you drive on, with more impact than if you had purchased from Amazon.
So, in the first quarter of each year we look back and are renewed with a sense of purpose for helping to support “local” on our now national scale. Each of our communities are unique, with businesses that help create the culture of the “place.” Yet, so many stories and experiences are alike in that they resonate with similar themes: the struggle to find the time to do the things needed to be done, keeping up with customer needs, workforce shortages, COVID complications, and balancing work and life. At the core of the small business experience is one person or family’s passion. So, back to our “why?” The core of communities, the core of small businesses, is the people. Our small team is so proud to serve the people making their communities great. Look through our annual report, and you’ll see our people-first mindset is present in our stories, initiatives, and new technology offerings.
