This weekend over a bottle of wine, and a discussion on everything from the ‘occupy movement’ to ‘organic vs. local’ we mutts each made an honest assessment the power of the individual. With those thoughts swirling in my head, I decided to make an early new years resolution to become much more supportive of the entrepreneurial community of both small and local businesses.
A small change can be shopping at the local organic grocery store and buying only $10 worth of organic veggies per month. Instead of spending all yer bucks at a grocery chain store and buying produce that has travelled across the globe, is out of season and filled with GMO’s.
To help influence change we will be posting interview’s and information on an assortment of small businesses. Here is segment of an interview from style.com on Maria Cornejo, discussing her views on keeping business (relatively) small. The photo above is of our neighbourhood organic store Multiple Organics where I purchased my $10 of veggies today!
How important is it to you to be a small business?
It’s important for me, for my own creativity, to have our own point of view in the whole market. Being a small business, you’re offering a different a point of view that hasn’t been offered everywhere else. Having a so-called small business allows us to move quickly and respond to clients and what they need, rather than by trends. When things get too homogenized, everything [becomes] very corporate. You can find the same store in every major capital in the world.
But I imagine it’s more difficult to be a small businesswoman.
It’s tough. You’re putting yourself out there every season and there’s no security blanket. But that’s half the thing that keeps it interesting and keeps it challenging. When collections become formulaic, they die very quickly. They have their moment in the sun and they’re gone. When you have your own business, you’re constantly evolving.
You mentioned your business is growing. What are you working on now?
We’re launching the shoe collection, it’s a small collection made in Italy. And bags too. When it comes to bags you can’t really fake it anywhere else [than Italy]. I like keeping things local, wherever possible. I like to keep things where they’re meant to be.
Like the clothing, which is largely made in New York.
We made 70 percent of the collection in New York, like The Row. We have the same factories. For a certain level of customer, that’s really important. It’s a luxury. To have something genuinely made and know who made it, that’s a real luxury. And to know there’s not 2,000 of it flying around the world. It means a lot to me to go to a factory and see how things are made. I think people appreciate that.
