Singapore has entered a circuit-breaker phase, which essentially means that we are in a soft lock-down. With this, we’ve joined many people around the world who are in lockdowns or social distancing measures of varying degrees. All these measures, while absolutely necessary to flatten the curve, will have huge impacts. Apart from the impact on jobs, many small businesses will be impacted.
I personally think that small businesses are important to our economy and our society so in this post, I’ve created a list of small businesses (many of them Singaporean, since this is where I live) that you can support during this time. And the support doesn’t have to be financial either! You can help by recommending them to a friend who’s looking to buy or just by following and helping to boost their audience.
Tea
Kenny Leong is a tea educator whom I deeply respect. His workshop on oolongs was amazing and I admire his commitment to the tea education scene in Singapore. Plus he’s super generous with his knowledge – I’ve been asking him questions since I first made his acquaintance and he’s never hesitated to teach me. He primarily makes his money through workshops and as a writer and as a result has been badly hit by the current measures. In order to keep his business going, he’s taken the pretty drastic step to pivot to also selling teas. If you’d like to book a workshop for when this is over or if you’d like to order some teas, you can talk to him over at this Instagram and find out more.
I’ve also previously made a list of Singaporean tea brands that you can buy from if you need more tea! I’ve also been enjoying tea from Rare Tea Company, which is committed to paying farmers fair prices for its tea. I also like Bird & Blend Tea Co., if you’re in the UK and want something local!
Teaware
I’ve been buying lots of vintage teaware lately so here are some shops that I’ve bought from:
Vintage Garden in the Tropics (Carousell)
Angela Bloom Tearoom (Carousell)
The Vintage Tea Loft (Facebook and Instagram)
All these sellers are small businesses who are extremely friendly. Plus, by buying vintage, you are helping to lessen the environmental impact to just the shipping costs.
Books
While the Big Five Publishing Houses are too big to qualify as small businesses, there are many indie authors out there who do! You can support authors directly by buying their ebooks. For example, indie authors can get up to 70% of the list price of the book as royalties when you purchase from platforms such as Amazon or Kobo. Some authors (like me) also have permafree books so that readers can try their work without having to spend any money first. When you choose to try it, their book gets a boost in rankings & you get a free read (if you review the book after, all the better!)
You can also support authors indirectly by checking out their books from the library, thus letting the library know that there is a demand for that author’s books, or requesting for the library to stock their books if the books are unavailable. The NLB might be closed, but Overdrive isn’t!
You can also leave a review for authors on places like Kobo, Amazon, Goodreads, your blog, Instagram, etc, to help people discover the book.
Artists & Crafters
I really enjoyed my workshop with Ally Craft’s Co and she pointed me in the direction of Ally Learns Co, which she helps with. Ally Learns Co sells handmade educational toys and all the profits go towards supporting a single mother and her daughter.
Another local artist I like is Troops on Print! Her cartoons are way too cute! She does customisations and I use the bag I got from her all the time. Other artists you can support include:
Honey & Gazelle – I bought so many of their washi tapes and dot notebooks! Their prices are reasonable and their designs so cute!!
Hello Flowers SG – social enterprise selling flowers
Sunshinenlove_sg – handpainted goods
Byiroiro – handmade sustainable home and lifestyle goods!
Yarninghearts – curator of artisan yarns
(All links are to their Instagram accounts)
With so many out of work right now and businesses suffering, the most we can do is try to support small and local businesses as much as possible. Thank you for all the links!
I do what I can! Spending is such a tricky thing nowadays – small businesses need us to spend, but not many people can spend too much either.