Fort Worth For Women (FOWO), is a private business network serving local women retail owners in Fort Worth, Texas. Created in 2009, FOWO is designed to be a peer-to-peer mentoring organization, offering support for the unique challenges facing women-owned businesses.
FOWO is built on the concept that when everyone contributes, we form a much more powerful force together than alone. As we get to know each other as colleagues, we find that there is more that binds us together than separates us. FOWO also serves our community by keeping Fort Worth a vibrant and varied city that we adore.
FOWO is dedicated to the principle of buying locally and building a family-friendly, sustainable, healthy community. We are committed to restoring and maintaining the personal service culture of quality retailers. FOWO works to keep Fort Worth money in Fort Worth by reminding neighbors of the variety of choices and high quality of products and services available through our independent network of FOWO retailers.
FOWO is energized and inspired by the viral charisma of The 3/50 Project launched March 2009 in Minnesota. The 3/50 Project challenges each citizen to contribute to their local economy by identifying 3 stores they want to keep around, and then spend $50 each month.
For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community in sales taxes and payroll taxes & other expenditures.
When spent at a local outlet of a national chain, only $43 returns here.
When spent at a Big Box Store, only $4 comes back home. And online? Well…. nothing.
It is all about balance. While everyone loves a bargain, sustaining our city and our neighborhoods is even more important. We are not campaigning against internet and chain store shopping. FOWO asks each of us as citizens to consider and invest in our local retailers when making shopping decisions. We, the members of FOWO, live here alongside you. We also want our community to thrive.
Top Ten reasons to Think Local – Buy Local – Be Local
(reprinted courtesy of Sustainable Connections)
- Buy Local — Support yourself: Several studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms — continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community.
- Support community groups: Non-profit organizations receive an average 250% more support from smaller business owners than they do from large businesses.
- Keep our community unique: Where we shop, where we eat and have fun — all of it makes our community home. Our one-of-a-kind businesses are an integral part of the distinctive character of this place. Our tourism businesses also benefit. “When people go on vacation they generally seek out destinations that offer them the sense of being someplace, not just anyplace.” ~ Richard Moe, President, National Historic Preservation Trust
- Reduce environmental impact: Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.
- Create more good jobs: Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and in our community, provide the most jobs to residents.
- Get better service: Local businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products they are selling and take more time to get to know customers.
- Invest in community: Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.
- Put your taxes to good use: Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.
- Buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy: A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.
- Encourage local prosperity: A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.
