When your local business competes against national giants, you need all the help you can get.
I opened a clothing boutique in Austin nearly 20 years ago. For all of that time — through recessions, a pandemic, and myriad small-scale crises — we’ve strived and scraped to give Austin a personal alternative to the giant department stores that occupy huge swaths of shopping malls in our city and many others.
Our competitors advertise during national championships and awards shows. Their logos and goods pop up on most of the websites and news pages you read — quite possibly including this one. Highways roll up almost to their stores’ property lines. They are able to invest millions of dollars in online marketing and Google ads. It’s a lot for a small business to compete with.
Yet for a generation, my business has thrived. That’s because, in addition to business basics — sell great products, provide great service, create beautiful stores, work incredibly hard — we embrace every opportunity to tell our stories and connect with our customers.
For the past several years, that’s meant mastering digital marketing and advertising tools that help us better understand what customers want and how to deliver it. Digital platforms have become an important advertising opportunity for small businesses that compete against the nation’s biggest brands and retailers.
Unfortunately, some of those tools could be at risk due to policy conversations happening right now in Austin and Washington.
I get it: people are concerned about their online privacy. So am I. We absolutely need to be aware of how big tech companies collect and use our data, and to understand the differences between data use and abuse. I also agree that laws need to be passed so that our privacy is protected.
But there’s a real risk that lawmakers will overshoot in ways that have grave consequences for businesses like mine.
New laws regulating data, and the conversations driving them, must consider the needs and perspectives of small businesses. It’s essential that lawmakers find the middle ground where small businesses can use these platforms to serve our customers, just like the larger corporations in the same space, without compromising personal data.
Just up the street from my store, the Texas Legislature is considering a range of proposals that need to walk this line between big tech responsibility and small business economics. So is Congress. Some of the proposals have a stated purpose that we all agree on, such as protecting minors from inappropriate online content.
But as a business owner, I worry about the fine print, how these bills may be interpreted, and whether my ads will get unintentionally flagged. And regulations meant to block the sale of personal data could accidentally cut us off from the analytics we need to understand which advertisements our customers engage with and how we can serve them better.
Digital advertising and analytics have helped my business compete online in ways I never imagined 20 years ago. They help us understand what works and what doesn’t, and they allow us to respond in immediate, effective ways — moving resources into areas where they’ll do the most good without wasting money advertising to people who aren’t interested.
National chains have more options. Their eight- and nine-figure budgets can pay for “spray-and-pray” billboards and TV commercials, blasting ads at millions of people in hopes of engaging just a few of them.
We can’t afford to play that game, and thanks to online platforms, we don’t have to. Digital tools offer small business owners the thing we need most: a good return on our investment.
I love owning a small business, and I’m grateful for our role we play in the community and the chance to reflect and amplify our local character. I also have a profound appreciation for small businesses’ contribution in creating jobs and growing the economy.
Digital platforms help us do that. To make sure we can continue doing this well, we need legislators to find balanced solutions that protect small businesses and the economy.
Wendi Koletar Martin is the owner of Kick Pleat, a fashion boutique in Austin and Houston.
