8 Powerful Ways to Support Small Businesses—Without Spending a Dime
For women-owned and service-based businesses, visibility is everything. That’s why finding ways to support small businesses for free, through social sharing, referrals, and reviews, is often more impactful than making a purchase. These simple actions can build awareness, generate leads, and keep entrepreneurs in business.
Whether it’s a coach you admire, a creative you follow online, or a service provider who’s helped you move forward in your own business, there are real, meaningful ways to support small businesses for free—and every one of them matters.
Especially for women-owned and service-based businesses, your voice and actions can be more powerful than any marketing campaign.
1. Share Their Content With Context
Don’t just repost—add a personal note. “I love what she’s doing,” “This helped me rethink my messaging,” or “If you’re a service provider, read this!” gives weight to your share and invites others to trust your recommendation.
Social proof matters. Contextual sharing helps small businesses gain traction with the right audience, and gives your network valuable resources they can act on. Your words give their work meaning—and reach.
Know someone who needs a business strategist who makes scaling simple?? Start here.
2. Tag Them in Relevant Conversations
Referrals are the lifeblood of most small businesses. When someone in a group, a thread, or a comment section asks, “Know anyone who can help with this?”—tagging a business you believe in is free visibility and built-in trust.
Even if you haven’t purchased, your word-of-mouth recommendation still carries credibility. It’s one of the easiest and highest-leverage ways to show support.
3. Leave a Specific, Heartfelt Review
A thoughtful review is one of the most underutilized yet powerful forms of support. Reviews build trust with new leads, increase SEO visibility, and give business owners credibility that money can’t buy.
Whether it’s about a purchase, a free download, a helpful DM, or even the way their content makes you feel, your experience matters. Write a few lines about what stood out and how they showed up for you.
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4. Save, Comment, and Share Their Posts
The algorithm rewards engagement, not just likes. Saving an Instagram post, commenting on a LinkedIn update, or sharing a blog to your stories tells the platform: this is valuable.
It also tells the business owner: someone’s listening.
These micro-actions add up. A single comment can nudge their post into someone else’s feed—and that next person might be their future client.
5. Include Them in Your Own Content
Have a blog? A podcast? A resource guide for your clients? Mention or feature a small business you love. Whether it’s a strategist you learned from or a designer who nailed your brand—give them credit and backlink them if possible.
This boosts their domain authority and introduces them to audiences who might not otherwise find them. In a digital landscape where visibility = currency, backlinks and platform sharing are modern referrals.
6. Invite Them Into Your Platform
Got an audience? Share it. Whether you run a Facebook group, newsletter, podcast, or even just have a solid LinkedIn following, offering someone space to share their expertise or story is one of the most generous things you can do—for free.
It’s a win-win: you get engaging content, they get exposure, and your audience gets fresh perspective.
Interested in featuring a strategist who helps small businesses scale with systems? Get in touch with Lisa.
7. Encourage Them—Loudly or Quietly
Not all support has to be public. A voice note. A DM. A reminder that their work is seen. That what they’re building matters.
Entrepreneurship can feel isolating, especially when results lag behind effort. Your encouragement could be the one moment that makes someone feel like they’re not doing it all for nothing.
8. Refer Them—Even If You’re Not a Buyer
You might not need their service or product right now. But someone in your world does. You don’t need to buy to be a referral source. You just need to believe in what they do.
Forward their name. Mention them on a call. Tag them when someone asks. It takes seconds—and it’s the kind of support that helps small businesses stay in business.
Looking to send someone toward systems that actually scale? Refer them to Mission Start or Operation Six-Figure.
Final Thought
Supporting small business isn’t about grand gestures. It’s about showing up. Using your voice. Sharing what you value. And doing it with intention—even if it’s invisible to the outside world.
So whether you’re lifting up a friend’s side hustle, sharing a new coach’s content, or dropping a link in a group thread, you’re not “just being nice.”
You’re fueling someone’s mission. And that matters more than you know.
Want to support DeBella today?
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