Small Business' Depend on the U.S. Postal Service

Access to the mailbox, and local customers, is a survival issue for America's small businesses. Neighborhood retailers and service providers, like the neighborhood pizza shop, hair salon, and auto repair service, all depend on locally targeted mail advertising to get in business and stay in business.

For the independent businessperson, the following saying holds true:

Early to bed -- early to rise
Work like heck -- and advertise.

The small business entrepreneur may work harder, longer, and smarter, than his big store competitors, but the business still needs a way to find and retain customers. For many local retailers and service providers, the U.S. Postal Service is a lifeline to customers.

America's neighborhood retailers, service providers and home based businesses rely on the type of advertising found in cooperative coupon envelopes, shared mail packages, or free papers that reach every household in a neighborhood store's trade area. These types of geographically targeted reach-everyone mail programs, allow a local business to connect with existing and potential customers near his or her store. Small businesses cannot often afford traditional mass media advertising, and for them this type of does not effectively reach their right target audience.

For the local business, the Postal Service is like the town crier of old. The Postal Service has in existence a carrier force that travels to every home in America, six days a week. These troops depend upon the postage paid by mail users to cover the cost of home delivery. There is no other advertising method that is so well adapted to deliver advertising from local merchants to the consumers around their store.

Without an affordable and unrestricted way to notify customers, thousands of small businesses would lose an essential lifeline to the customers that help them get in business and stay in business.

updated: Wednesday, December 5, 2007 6:24 PM