Local Entrepreneur Launches Campaign to Save Local Businesses

New survey reveals that 71 per cent of Brits believe 2011 will be a financially tougher year for local businesses than 2010.

Local newsagents voted Britain’s most important high street businesses.

A local entrepreneur is launching a major campaign to help save local businesses following a new survey revealing that 71 per cent of Brits believe 2011 will be a tougher year for local businesses than 2010.

Tom Salter, who runs local marketing companies thebestofhull and thebestof beverley is helping to launch the ‘14 Days of Love’ Campaign which he hopes will both raise awareness about the plight faced by local businesses and also prove that the local community can make a real difference to Hull’s economy.

Tom said, ‘We are so passionate about this campaign because we can’t simply rely on the Government to support local businesses. The fact is, this is our community and it’s up to us to make a difference. One of the ways we can do that is by showing some real ‘love’ for local businesses this February’.

The 14 Days of Love campaign encourages local people across Hull, Beverley and the surrounding area, to ‘show some love’ by writing testimonials in support of their local businesses. All testimonials posted from the 1st March 2010 up until the 14thFebruary 2011 will be added to the website’s Love-O-Meter, which will ultimately decide who the ‘Most Loved’ businesses are, both locally and nationally.

A prize draw is also being run by ‘thebestof’ and the local people who post testimonials for local businesses will have the chance to win fantastic prizes including an Apple iPad, a hot air balloon ride, a luxurious spa day and a Michelin star restaurant dinner for two.  The local people leaving the most testimonials will become the ‘Best Lovers’ in Hull, or Beverley.

The campaign also encourages people to post quirky videos about local businesses and Tom will be working with businesses to actively promote the campaign throughout Hull.

As a part of the campaign thebestof has also launched a major new survey to gauge how we feel about local businesses. The results showed that an overwhelming number of Brits (71%) feel 2011 will be a tougher year financially for local businesses, compared to 2010.

The results also showed:

• Only 2 per cent of Brits with a nearby high street/local business were very confident that all their local businesses would survive 2011.
• 80 per cent of Brits believe that rises in VAT (from 17.5 percent to 20percent) and inflation in general will have a negative impact on local businesses.

Tom said ‘The results clearly show that most people are concerned for local businesses. The importance of our campaign and the reason why we want as many people involved as possible, is because we can change this. This is not about charity, this is about reconnecting people with one of the most important aspects of local communities’.

When asked about the most important high street business over a third of Brits with a high street local business nearby said that the high street newsagent was the UK’s most important local business.