3 Steps to Support Women-Owned Businesses Using Your Purchase Power This Women’s History Month

How can you celebrate Women’s History Month in a tangible and impactful way? While posting on social media and discussing women’s rights with your friends and family are great starts, you can use the resources you have to create impact in your own community and support women-owned businesses.

This month we’re focusing on how you can use your purchase power, one of the nine elements of Points of Light’s Civic Circle^®, a framework for civic engagement that involves many avenues, including volunteering, voting, donating and more.

What Is Purchase Power?

Simply put, purchase power represents an individual’s ability to make decisions that reflect their values or advance a social cause or issue by choosing where they do and don’t spend their money. Whether you’re buying from a sustainable company or boycotting a product, how you buy makes a difference, and purchase power has been used over and over in the past to successfully drive change.

Start With Research

So, how can you utilize this knowledge to support women during the month of March? Start by researching women-owned businesses in your area and beyond. You can search the U.S. Small Business Administration’s database of registered women-owned small businesses to gather together your list.

You might look even further at these businesses to narrow down your list according to the issues and populations you’re most passionate about. Some companies, for instance, are veteran women-owned businesses, while others are both minority-owned and women-owned.

Prioritize Your Purchases to Support Women-Owned Businesses

Next, determine which purchases you need to make now vs. later, and what to prioritize this March. While it may be a bit early in the year to do your holiday shopping, are there any upcoming events you have that you can plan for?

Purchases don’t necessarily need to be consumable goods. Consider services as well – dry cleaning, restaurants and food service, house cleaning or janitorial services, auto repair… the list goes on and on.

Consider Other Ways to Contribute

Finally, if you don’t have the need to make any purchases right now, take into account how else you might be able to support women-owned organizations in your area. If you have the means, making a donation to a nonprofit that is advancing women’s issues can help immensely.

Not only can you uplift the female business owners in your community, but you can contribute to boosting your local economy by spending your dollars in your own backyard.

For more ideas on how you can get involved with social impact and lend your time, talents and resources to any cause area, including championing women, check out Points of Light’s Civic Circle.

Want to explore more? Check out these additional resources:

• Women’s History Month: 170+ Women-owned Brands to Support: this comprehensive list includes many women-owned brands and businesses you can support with your dollar.
• Resources for Women-Owned Businesses: if you’re interested in founding your own women-owned business, check out these government and private programs to help support your journey.
• Women-Owned Businesses: In this webinar, dive into statistics available from the Census Bureau on women-owned businesses. Learn about the different dimensions of business and demographic data from multiple programs and how to access the information.