What is an Independent Business Alliance?
An Independent Business Alliance® works to build vital local economies based on independent, locally-owned businesses and prevent chain proliferation and other trends from displacing local entrepreneurs. IBAs unite locally-owned independent businesses, citizens and community organizations to achieve this goal.
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What is a Local Independent Business? AMIBA's recommended criteria are: 1. Private, worker, community or cooperative ownership. |
IBAs accomplish this through three primary focus areas:
- Public education about the greater overall value local independents often can provide (even when they are not the cheapest) as well as the vital economic, social and cultural role independent businesses play in the community.
- Facilitating cooperative promotion, advertising, purchasing, sharing of skills and resources and other activities to help local businesses gain economies of scale and compete more effectively.
- Creating a strong and uncompromised voice to speak for local independents in the local government and media while engaging citizens in guiding the future of their community through democratic action.
See examples of IBA successes
Interested
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The IBA model was pioneered by AMIBA's founders in 1998, and it has been used by communities of all sizes around the country (see About
AMIBA for more).
You can discover if there's an IBA near you or in your travel
destination HERE
Independent Business Alliance
is a registered mark of the AMIBA and only affiliates may use the phrase in their organization's name. Please capitalize the first letter of each word when referring to Independent Business Alliances. If you wish to include other groups that are based on the IBA model in your writing, please use a generic phrase like "local business coalition."
