{"id":432,"date":"2011-02-21T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T12:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=432"},"modified":"2014-08-27T07:46:03","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:46:03","slug":"when-saving-dollar-could-lose-your","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2011\/02\/when-saving-dollar-could-lose-your.html","title":{"rendered":"When saving a dollar could lose your community"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Melyn Johnson is the Main Street Manager in Guymon, Oklahoma<\/a>. She always amazes me with her innovative projects in tourism and community development. She is also incredibly generous at sharing her knowledge. She wrote this piece for her “On the Bricks” column,\u00a0in the Guymon Daily Herald<\/a>. It’s been reprinted in other area papers, and she kindly shared it with us. -Becky]<\/i><\/p>\n

Just recently in conversation someone told me that they purchased their insurance online. Ouch. That really hurt. Biting my tongue is what hurt. The inclination for me to pull out the soap\u00a0box, climb atop the box, and deliver a personal opinion was strong. But I maintained self-control. Until now.<\/p>\n

Online? Really? The very thought gives me heartburn.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Guymon,<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Guymon’s Centennial Park
Photo by my friend Program Witch<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Saturday my grandson (and many other people\u2019s children and grandchildren) played two\u00a0games on the Kid\u2019s Inc. league. Not a single one of those teams had an online business on the\u00a0shirts.<\/p>\n

The day before, the Ag Appreciation Day was held, an education opportunity for our\u00a0farmers and ranchers (including a free meal). There were several local insurance agencies that\u00a0had paid the money for booths and were present. None of them were online agencies.<\/p>\n

On Saturday at the Women in Ag conference, there was Phil and Dianna Brown in\u00a0attendance. No online companies that I saw.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s let the imagination run to that tree branch falling on your roof and causing damage\u00a0to your house and car. It\u2019s easy to just call up Phil and Dianna (or Warner and Roger McKinnon\u00a0or Ken Lane). Good luck on calling that online group. And don\u2019t whine to me when you find out\u00a0how it\u2019s working for you.<\/p>\n

Whew. I think the soap box can be put up now on that subject.<\/p>\n

Wait, though. Before putting it up let me address shopping in your hometown.<\/p>\n

Every morning when you wake up you want water to flow out of your faucet. You want\u00a0your toilet to flush by simply pulling down that handle. You want your streets paved, your trash\u00a0picked up, your street light giving off light so you don\u2019t trip getting to your car. You want a\u00a0swimming pool where you kids can go all day for just a little bit of money. You want a park with\u00a0playground equipment for them to play or have their birthday party. You want a golf course so\u00a0your spouse can be gone for a few hours on the weekend. You decide to do genealogy research\u00a0and begin using the public library and want research materials. You want. You want. You want.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t act like you don\u2019t know where the money comes from to provide all of that. A\u00a0minute part of it is the fees, but in our Oklahoma towns it is primarily sales tax dollars.<\/p>\n

How would you like to call the City Manager and tell him about a pot hole on your street\u00a0that you want fixed and him say, \u201cSorry, our street crew is working on streets in Amarillo\u00a0today.\u201d Take a deep breath. You brought it on yourself.<\/p>\n

When you choose where to buy your groceries think about who provided those buns free\u00a0at your last Sunday School picnic. Think about who bought ads in your school yearbook so your\u00a0kids could have an affordable memory of their school years.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re buying a car, try to remember if the place you\u2019re buying your car (or\u00a0washer or dryer or furniture) bought an animal at the stock show. Or if they donated to your\u00a0prom party. Or bought the scoreboard at your school. We might even remember who buys the\u00a0radio time so you can listen to area teams in the playoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Guymon,<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“On the Bricks” in Downtown Guymon
Photo by my friend Program Witch<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Now, don\u2019t be throwing out exceptions as excuses. Sure, it\u2019s a fact you can\u2019t get\u00a0everything in your hometown. That\u2019s not what we\u2019re talking about. As a point, to heck with any\u00a0excuses at all. Just thoughts to ponder. You say you save some money \u2026 but I wonder just how\u00a0much of that $3 gasoline it takes to save those dollars. And how many hours it took you to drive\u00a0to and from that other town.<\/p>\n

When there are medical emergencies and traumatic events, who steps up and helps out?\u00a0Hometown zip codes is my guess.<\/p>\n

Who buys the tickets to your school and community plays? Who buys the FFA top hands?\u00a0Who pays for all that expensive candy and other stuff your golf team is selling as a fund raiser?\u00a0It\u2019s always people who own or work for people who are in business in or near your hometown.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to stop going into places just for a handout. Think about where you\u2019re going and\u00a0why. There is nothing wrong with going to other towns, no. But consider what you expect from\u00a0local merchants and be economically smart. Sometimes when you\u2019re saving a dollar, you could\u00a0lose much more.<\/p>\n

And while you\u2019re thinking, tell those folks that do provide jobs in your hometown, that\u00a0do pay the taxes that helps keep water running through your faucet, that do hold up your\u00a0community events \u2026 tell them thank you. I appreciate our community supporters every time you\u00a0give to our kids, our school, our community events, our civic groups. You\u2019re what keeps us alive.<\/p>\n

Time to put the soap box away.<\/p>\n

See you on the bricks.<\/p>\n

If you would like to reprint this article in your newsletter or local newspaper, Melyn has agreed to allow that. Please send a copy to her at\u00a0Main Street Guymon,\u00a0PO Box 1393,\u00a0Guymon, OK 73942-1393. For online publications, please leave a link here in the comments. Thanks!<\/i><\/p>\n

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour<\/a>. Like what you see? Get our updates<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Melyn Johnson is the Main Street Manager in Guymon, Oklahoma. She always amazes me with her innovative projects in tourism and community development. She is also incredibly generous at sharing her knowledge. She wrote this piece for her “On the Bricks” column,\u00a0in the Guymon Daily Herald. It’s been reprinted in other area papers, and she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,9,10,8],"tags":[33,38],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7270,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/7270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}