AUGUSTA, Ga (WJBF) – Augusta is full of locally owned businesses and for 5 years now, the Little Guide has been helping shine a light on them.

The Little Guide is a guide book full of locally owned businesses, and it helps by encouraging people to shop local.

“What Little Guide does is we help them tell their story so that people can really know who they are behind the business, and why they have a passion for doing what they do. What we hope for them is that they build followers and fans and help new customers find them,” said Owner Stuart Rayburn.

In the time that Little Guide has been around it’s grown, and they have over a 115 distribution locations in the CSRA.

“Downtown, North Augusta, Martinez, Evans, West Augusta. The best place to find out where to get one is to go online at www.mylittleguide.com,” said Rayburn.

The guide is not only something that consumers love, but business owners are excited about it as well.
“Augusta is growing a lot. We got a lot of transplants, a lot of people coming from all over the country to here and I know if I came to a new town and saw something like the Little Guide I would pick it up, look through it, see who’s who in the different categories of business. So it gets us in front of the newer people and it reminds the locals that we’re still here as well,” said Drew Jordan, Owner of Andy Jordan’s Bicycle Warehouse.

“We have over an eighty percent renewal rate so I think that speaks to the fact that we do well and we make money for folks, and bring them customers,” said Rayburn.

Drew Jordan, Owner of Andy Jordan’s Bicycle Warehouse is in the Little Guide, and he likes that customers get to see a new side of his business.”

“It tells a little bit about the history of my career as a local business owner, and it tells a little about what we’ve done in the community. It showcases some of our services and kind of humanizes us a little bit,” said Jordan.

The mission is only beginning for the folks at Little Guide. Their goal is to be America’s favorite local guide, and expand into other markets and serve those communities as well.

“Local Business is the character of the community. It’s the restaurants and small shops that really give us our identity. If everyone was full of franchise stores and big box stores then every community would be the same,” said Rayburn.