As the chair of the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s Look Local First Program, I encourage you to determine ways that your business can shift more of your out-of-area spending to local products and services. Now is the perfect time to re-evaluate your business’ spending strategies.

Look Local First is an initiative that encourages area employers to commit to shift 5 percent of their spending back to local vendors. We are looking for companies to pledge to shift their out-of-area spending, and also share their success stories and become champions for this initiative.

There are obvious reasons to look local when you make purchasing decisions. From a purely economic standpoint, shifting just 5 percent of your business’ spending to local vendors could add more than $672 million per year to the local economy, and cause a ripple effect with an economic impact of more than $1 billion for Greater Des Moines. This ripple effect creates jobs, diversifies our tax base and makes Central Iowa stronger for every company that does business here — including yours.

Beyond that, doing business locally can allow your company to develop relationships that will pay dividends for your business down the road. And the customer service you have with a local business is usually of a much higher caliber. As the general manager for a small business myself, I can attest that strong relationships are key to long-term success.

Businesses often equate doing business locally with paying more, and that is just not true. Don’t confuse large marketing and advertising budgets that national companies have with large savings for consumers all the time. You may find a well-qualified vendor right here you didn’t know about. Does that mean we as business people shouldn’t be fiscally motivated? On the contrary. Raise the bar on local business to be able to compete. I think you will find they do respond in most cases.

Stop and think for a second about what opportunities your business might have to use local vendors. There could be any number of functions that are core to your business for which you could use any one of several talented local companies. You can find expertise in manufacturing, legal services, advertising and much more right here in Central Iowa. All you have to do is look.

In my previous company we looked at our fleet fuel program and were able to move a substantial amount of purchasing back to a local business — a local business that does a lot of good in our community. So the economic rollover benefit of those dollars we spent compounded multiple times. And they got filtered to other local businesses! What a great ripple effect.

Remember, it doesn’t always have to be huge to make a difference. The real question in my opinion isn’t “Why should I buy local?” If this is where I live, work and play, and my dollars either go into my community or someone else’s, the question is “Why wouldn’t I Look Local First?”

Ultimately for a small business, the bottom line drives almost every financial decision. When we push for you to Look Local First, we understand that you may not choose a local vendor in every situation. But we hope that your business will first look for opportunities to do business locally. By keeping our local economy top of mind, I am confident your business will discover opportunities that you did not even know existed.

I invite you to shift your mindset to looking local. Go to the Look Local First website and pledge to become a Look Local First pledge company. It is a simple step to take, and together we can make Central Iowa’s economy even stronger.