Shopping local helps opens doors for entrepreneurs

Published 4:00 am Thursday, December 11, 2025

This holiday season, every local purchase tells a bigger story about central Vancouver Island.

We asked Kelly McBride, business development and credit officer with Community Futures Central Island, to share her perspective.

Q: What do you see when you look around our region in December?

A: At first glance you see lights, decorations, busy shops and families out enjoying themselves. It is a beautiful time of year. My job is to look a little deeper and see how those moments turn into cash flow for local businesses. I watch whether that money stays in our central Island communities or leaves the region the second a card gets tapped. Every local choice quietly keeps jobs going, staff paid in February, and your favourite storefronts open next year.

Q: Why does buying local matter for our long term health as a region?

A: Because money is not magic. It goes where you send it. Spend $20 at a local business and it helps pay a staff member, a landlord, a bookkeeper and often another local supplier.

For example, grab two lattes and a snack at White Rabbit Coffee in Nanaimo and that $20 helps pay local wages, keeps a heritage rail station active, and supports local suppliers and service providers. One coffee stop equals several local paycheques.

With Wrapture Customs in Nanaimo, a local business might spend a few thousand dollars to wrap a delivery van. That order pays skilled tradespeople, keeps high value creative work on the

Island, and helps another local business stand out and win more customers.

It is the same pattern every time. Local spending turns into local wages, local rent, local contracts and local donations. You are not just buying a product or a meal, you are deciding whether that money keeps working in central Vancouver Island or boosts someone else’s bottom line in another city.

Spend the same $20 with a giant online retailer and most of it is off the Island before you have opened the box. If downtown feels quieter and local jobs feel scarce, that trail usually leads straight back to our spending habits.

Q: Where does Community Futures Central Island fit in?

A: We are the people entrepreneurs sit down with after the decorations come down. We look at the books, the plan, and decide whether we can back them with a flexible loan and real-world advice. We are a local, non-profit lender that cares if this region is stronger five years from now, so we tell people the truth. If the numbers work, we fight for them. If they do not, we explain what has to change so they can.

When residents support local businesses, those businesses are more likely to qualify for growth financing. When we finance them, they have a better shot at surviving, hiring and expanding. That loop is where the magic happens. If you are not part of it, you are watching everyone else build the future without you.

Q: If someone is reading this and either wants to support local or is thinking about starting or buying a business, what would you say as we head into the holidays?

A: For residents, it is simple. Before you click ‘buy now’ online, pause and ask if there is a local option. When you choose it, you are directly supporting local jobs and local families. That is how you show up for your community in a way that actually counts.

For anyone thinking about starting, expanding or buying a business, waiting for a perfect moment is how great ideas collect dust. If you are in the central Island region, come talk to us at Community Futures Central Island. Bring your idea, your questions and your rough numbers. We will walk through it with you and be honest about where you stand and what needs to happen next.

A stronger central Vancouver Island is built one business decision and one spending choice at a time. The only question is whether you are on the sidelines watching, or in the middle of it with us.

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