I make a point to not make personal New Year's resolutions because I don't like disappointing myself when I fail. But here is one I'm going to make this year, and I encourage you to do the same.

Support your local community.

I've always leaned toward buying from the little guy instead of the big box store, even though my frugal nature pressures me into getting the best (okay, cheapest) deal. For example, when my children were little and wanted a new video game, it was cheapest to go to the mom and pop video store and buy a used copy. But sometimes they wanted a brand new game, and it was inevitably cheaper from Walmart. I admit, I'd sometimes cave and buy it from Walmart, because I could save $2 or $3.

But now that Mr. A has his own business, I'm really thinking about this in a whole new way. Now we don't know a lot of people – let me put it this way I sent out Christmas cards to everyone we invited to our wedding in October 2007 and it was under 40 cards. Then there are the people I know from my job, about another twenty, and people from our church, another thirty to forty.

If even half the people we know called Mr. A whenever they needed some handyman work done, we'd be busier than we are now. I know part of the problem is we aren't the type of people to hand out business cards to everyone we know and meet. Part of the fault lies in our not being forward enough about his business. But the people that do know about his business never consider to hire him. Is there some unspoken rule about only hiring strangers that I don't know about?

I implore you today to stop and take a minute to think about who you know that you could hire. If it turns out you don't know anyone, but you live in a small community, then when you look on the Internet search by zip code, and make sure you're looking in your local Yellow pages.

Consider supporting someone in your own little town, or in your surrounding neighborhood. For example, my son AJ and I are thinking about taking singing lessons. We could do that in the big city, but we should first see if someone provides singing lessons in the small city nearest us.

Will you join me in this New Year's resolution?

Yours Truly,

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