PublicSquare.com started off as a simple list.
My wife and I needed to know which businesses in the San Diego area wouldn't impose onerous mask and vaccine mandates, and instead would honor our liberties, so we created our own directory.
This list was dominated by small businesses—from coffee shops to plumbers. I soon realized that a network like this would be something needed nationwide in communities across America, and PublicSquare was born. Now, less than three years later, every freedom-loving American has the ability to find a restaurant, clothing store, an electrician, or an online retailer that loves this country, the Constitution, and the values that document protects. We're proud to host the largest compilation of patriotic small businesses ever seen, and we're just getting started.
Far too many people believe that their power to effect change is limited to the voting booth every other year. This is a misconception. Every time you choose where to shop, you're making a statement. You're aligning your financial power with your principles.
This upcoming weekend, you can make a statement by participating in Small Business Saturday. You should resist the temptation to hand over your money to massive conglomerates on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Small businesses aren't the ones bankrolling radical non-profits or boycotting X, formerly known as Twitter.
Small businesses aren't the ones that rolled out the red carpet for Chinese Communist Party dictator Xi Jinping in California.
Small businesses aren't the ones lecturing you about climate change, while they're lobbying for the continuation of slave labor.
When Americans complain about "woke" companies, they usually aren't talking about small businesses.
Small businesses are the lifeblood of American communities. In contrast, many of the large corporations dominating Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales often show little concern for their impact on our nation. They'll outsource jobs to increase their profit margins and support waves of immigration to keep wages low.
This stark difference is evident in the way local chambers of commerce act as opposed to the US Chamber of Commerce.
Your local chamber of commerce holds luncheons and helps new businesses establish themselves in the community. The national Chamber of Commerce, on the other hand, lobbies for amnesty for illegal immigrants and opposes increasing government purchases of American-made products.
The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted this divide. America's largest companies were not the ones that suffered the most from oppressive COVID lockdowns. Their laptop employees simply went home to work for the year. Many locally-owned restaurants and shops, on the other hand, were shuttered permanently due to COVID mandates, which in fact were cheered on by some major CEOs who directly benefited from the mandates.
The small business community in America is, in essence, a "parallel economy" that has existed for decades. Mega-corporations with global aspirations have pursued growth at the expense of quality, while locally-owned stores are a reprieve from the sameness of nationwide chains. They give town squares character and uniqueness, and provide a relational transaction experience in a way that is far too rare these days.
In a recent joint project of RedBalloon.work and PublicSquare called the "Freedom Economy Index", we surveyed over 70,000 small business owners and found that only 28 percent of respondents said that they feel "optimistic" about their business over the next 6 months. Small businesses deserve our support more than ever, and if we wish to avoid a scenario where all our daily goods come from a few large companies indifferent to our local communities, then it'd be best for us to spend purposefully and support small businesses this Small Business Saturday.
Michael Seifert is the founder and CEO of PublicSquare, an online marketplace for freedom-loving Americans. Michael is a devoted husband and father. He and his family live in West Palm Beach.
