Colourful November

Small Business Support, Support Local, Sustainable Business
November 21, 2022

Colour Friday is all about supporting the colour and creativity of our small businesses. To give small businesses the recognition they deserve this Black Friday, we are supporting and encouraging people to shop local, and add colour to their Black Friday.

Let’s talk Black Friday and small businesses…

With Black Friday fast approaching and with a third of the public starting their Christmas shopping on this day, it’s safe to say that it’s a retail bonanza. But it’s not all good news with the overconsumption of Black Friday contributing to the negative impact on our planet.

Some dark truths about Black Friday;

Black Friday home deliveries across the UK this year alone will produce 429,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions
80% of us throw away our Black Friday purchases (* Forbes Magazine)
A quarter of Brits say they regret their Christmas Black Friday buys

So how can we change these problems?

Colour Friday!

Colour Friday launched by Holly Tucker (founder of Not on the High Street and Holly & Co), is a campaign that promotes independent retailers and allows the nation to celebrate the colour and creativity of amazing small businesses. This Christmas we’re shouting from the rooftops to encourage the public to shop locally, which means shining a light on the amazing colour and creativity that local businesses bring to our high streets and online.

This year, Colour Friday will take place on Friday 25th November 2022. Last year, thousands of small businesses took part in the first-ever Colour Friday! The amazing response from businesses and customers has shown that this campaign is a hoot for all involved. It’s the biggest date in the independent shopping calendar and we would love for the nation to show their support by shopping small this Black Friday. You’ll be making a small business owner’s Christmas by choosing to buy from them. This is more important than ever as half of the UK’s small business owners have said they fear that this will be their last Christmas trading.

So, what can you do as a business owner or as a member of the public wanting to support this amazing campaign:

If you are a small business owner:

We are encouraging our current and new listings to get involved with Colour Friday (to do this sign up at holly.co and you will get an email to explain in further detail). In response to taking part, you will get a free brochure from Local Life and will also be listed on the Local Life platform absolutely free of charge! How can you say no, it’s a win-win…
Share a picture to your business’s socials with the #colourfriday and #locallifeonline hashtags and we will share all the posts to our socials to increase your visibility

If you are a member of the public, you can get involved too:

Search for #colourfriday on socials and support the posts by liking, sharing, and commenting (you don’t even have to leave the house for this one, so there’s no excuse!)
Head down to your local Highstreet, most people don’t go to their Highstreet because they don’t know what’s there, to see what is in your area have a look at Local Life, we have loads of great listings with more being added every day. Sign up to the newsletter to stay in the local loop!
Try to avoid buying from the mass companies such as Amazon etc, even though they’re easy to buy from it means you’re taking that support away from a small business, but even more reason is the carbon emissions created when you buy even from a small business selling on Amazon because the item needs to be posted miles to reach you.
Tell your friends and family about Colour Friday and encourage them to support small businesses too.

We’re getting involved by featuring some of our Local Life listings in this campaign!

These are:

You’ll be surprised how great it is when you buy a unique gift for Christmas from a small business, rather than something everyone will have from a mass-produced business. Even as little as liking a business’s insta posts could help them get more recognition for their amazing work. If you could shop small this Colour Friday and help to keep a business trading, you’ll feel like a hero.

Bring the colour into your Black Friday, by shopping small and add a little colour to a small business owner’s day!