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MMBA Gives VOICE to MAIN STREET 

Mega corporations have been thought to possess great advantages because they control the "economies of scale," which allows them to garner purchasing, manufacturing and, ultimately, product pricing advantages. The same being true for service professionals: the bigger the corporate setting they work in, the more access they have to the kind of professional resources and credibility they need to make anyone's bottom line shine. Any MBA would happily advise their clients of these realities.

These assumptions are changing, however. Double and triple bottom line thinking seeks to blend the values of good corporate operations that make profits with the social responsibility of using capitalism to build a better community or even a better, healthier world. 

Add now to socially responsible corporate thinking the power and potential of advances in communications and information transfer technologies. Cellular communications, social and professional networking, participatory posting, data transfer, GPS targeting, hardware miniaturization: all of these technologies have changed the game of profit making. In fact, for the first time they have made it feasible to change the entire concept of economies of scale.

Small now has the chance to gain the same advantages as large. Even tiny has its place when the nation's attention focuses on achieving the new administration's goal of connecting small town and rural America to the potential for an entirely different future.

The purpose of the Micro Merchant Business Association (MMBA)is to address the one critical infrastructure flaw: to build a family of Mom & Pop micro merchants who are committed to working together to use technology to completely differently empower the economies of scale. 

The MMBA, as we like to say, is "one character bigger than a traditional MBA." And we want you to be part of the evolution of America's Main Street entreprenuerial family! 

Become a member of the MMBA family. Join in by adding your ideas and comments. Send us an email to JOIN THE MICRO-MERCHANT FAMILY!

See our introductory Press Release or check out our Clickliography (an interactive bibliography!) of related resources you might find interesting to help your business. 

Benicia, California

MERCHANT SPONSOR

Shirocos.com

WHAT'S A MICRO MERCHANT TO DO?

High view of Benicia's First Street Commercial District

Closer view of Benicia's First Street looking at Carquinez Strait

Want to expose the beauty of your community? Sign up as a family member and we'll post a copy of the Main Street that feeds your success too! 

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Enterprising Clickliography

Shear numbers alone mean something in a democracy. They can mean just as much for socially TINY businesses who are committed to blending their bottom lines with social, community and even planetary good! Double and Triple Bottom Line mentalities may be even more important to those of us who really understand the value of the communities we work in and serve.

Below are a few examples of things we believe micro merchants could do to help themselves and each other if we had the voice to make change happen.

We've divided these ideas into a series of categories. These categories are somewhat arbitrary, developed mostly for purposes of educational clarity.

Join the Micro-Merchant Family and make your own suggestions or help us present these to the world as ways that showcase the real value of us MMBAs!

RETAIL & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES IN ACTION

• Stand up and Be Counted (and Heard) 

Joining this family allows everyone to know just how powerful we can be locally, across our states and even natinonally. It's easy. Just share your email address and, if you can, send a note to other Micro Merchants who might want to be a part of our family. Do you know about any small business associations we might want to partner with (local, region, national or global)?

• Technological Promises

The Obama administration clearly wants advanced technology (high speed access) to be available across the board. Doing so could link micro-merchants together and with those who create and supply our customers.

• Modern Merchandising

Micro financing is a growing and respected effort on the international field as good-hearted people help aspiring retailers in developing countries. What would our world be like if there was an equal and exciting emphasis on Micro-Merchanding on Main Street America? 

• Vocational Educators

With hundreds of thousands, if not millions of tiny business settings, Micro Merchants could be an incredible, diverse base of locations where modern business training could occur for young people, if these positions were financially supported as they often are in corporate settings.

• Local Green Distributors / Educators

Many small stores showcase local artists and product manufacturers. Stores like Shirocos in Benicia do the same for village artisants from across the globe -- with an emphasis on nature, Fair Trade products. This can clearly be an exceptional incentive for local consumers to get connected to Green Ideas of all sorts.

• Be Retail LEEDers

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the most respected entity promoting the building of green buildings, is in the process of piloting Retail LEED standards. Can small town merchants benefit? Refine them for our use? Do something else to promote Mom & Pop activism? 

• Social Networkers

What could happen if Micro-Merchants from any town or around the nation spoke to each other regularly, shared ideas about how to get affordable products that kept consumer costs down? Wouldn't we be as competitive as any large, impersonal corporation?

• Global Ambassadors

Many small stores rely upon creative people from other nations to make designer products that we sell. At Shirocos.com, we focus on these kinds of products to introduce the world to our local and tourist customers. Doing so helps build bridges across nations. Imagine what might happen if we developed links between our stores and the people in villages who made these great items?

• Historical & Artistic Friends

The City of Benicia is recognized as California's City of Many Firsts. We have been out front and on the cutting edge of historical, artistic and community innovations. Some say California is what it is today because of our gossiping tendencies that led to the recognition of there being gold in the our hills!

• Community Leaders

Owners of local stores and small town businesses often serve as leaders of community-strengthening efforts, particularly when people are in need. Perhaps by uniting we can do more of this and even share ideas that can help our sister and brother Main Streets get through their periods of suffering?

• Command More Attention

Traditional national retailer associations, business leadership councils and even chambers of commerce seldom focus heavily on the Micro Merchants in their communities. They most often follow the sales revenue leaders instead of the most enterprising down-home leaders. If we came together to demand otherwise, perhaps our voices would be stronger everywhere, above and beyond what the federal government wants to do.

• Create a Micro-Business Emphasis

Even the nonprofit sector wants to build their own small helping businesses administration, similar to the SBA because too often Micro Merchants get shortchanged with governmental support. We too can pressure for recognition of our own to make sure that whatever funds come down the investment avenues of progress find their way toward these and other innovative ideas.