Why we choose to support Canadian businesses
As we reflect on our first year of business, we cannot let 2021 come to an end without expressing our eternal gratitude to our maker and event partners for collaborating with us. We could not be prouder to help shine a well-deserved light on Canadian small businesses throughout what has been a difficult period for all of us.
Canada’s small businesses are at the root of our economy; when we buy Canadian products and services, we are directly supporting our local communities. This year, however, makers and event partners have had to persevere through unpredictable adversity just to stay afloat. We saw first-hand how our Raised80’s network of businesses led by women and visible minorities bore the brunt of the pandemic’s impact on entrepreneurs. In fact, according to Stats Can, “businesses majority-owned by visible minorities were less likely than all private sector businesses to be able to continue to operate at current revenue and expense levels for 12 months or longer before considering laying off staff (36.9%) or considering closure or bankruptcy (45.3%)”. This year proved that our commitment to sourcing our products and services from these businesses is more important than ever before — without our collective support, they won’t be able to survive.
Even when Raised80s was just an idea, we knew we wanted to build a brand that would a) support local makers designing incredible ethical products made in Canada and b) prioritize visible minority, LGBTQ+ and women-led businesses as collaborators. We’re honoured to say that we’ve been able to uphold these values throughout the last year of our Raised80s adventure.
2021 was full of challenges for Canada’s small businesses, but here at Raised80s, we have no doubt that their resilience will pay off in success in 2022. As always, we’ll continue to do our part to support these amazing businesses in the new year in the hopes that the Made in Canada label will be consumed locally, provincially, nationally and beyond.
Happy holidays! We look forward to working with you in the very near future.
In gratitude,
The Raised80s team
