A few months ago I was sitting in the dentist's chair getting my teeth cleaned, and the hygienist asked me what I do for a living. I told her I own a hair salon down the road. She paused, then said, "Wait, YOU own a hair salon?" I know what I look like, okay? I tried not to take it personally…

Two people from that dentist's office are now regulars at our salon. I see them when I go in for appointments. We know each other by name. It's a small thing, but it feels almost out of time in 2026, when most of our interactions with businesses happen through a screen and nobody relates to each other in a human way anymore.

That connection didn't come from an ad. It didn't come from an algorithm. It came from me standing in a local business, talking to a real person, and having something real to offer them in return.

I'm going to say something that might sound strange coming from a person who builds AI software and is starting a digital products company: I think the most valuable business you can own is a local one.

I want to be upfront about the irony. I sell digital products. This newsletter is a digital product. I built an AI receptionist for my salon. I actually bootstrapped and launched an e-commerce business earlier in my career with a friend. Call me a hypocrite if you want. I completely understand. But I believe the things I'm about to say demonstrate an intangible value that a local business brings to a community that a faceless online business simply does not.

Since I bought the salon, I've been surprised by how much of my life now happens in the space between businesses. I hand out business cards everywhere I go: the bank, the bakery, the coffee shop. And what surprises me more is how many people actually follow through and show up. The restaurants, the dentist's office, and the coffee shop in the same strip where our salon is located are all local businesses, and we all support each other. We refer customers back and forth. We promote each other's marketing. When we want to cater a team meeting or throw a party at the salon, we order from the restaurant next door. There's a network effect that happens when local businesses cluster together, and it benefits every single one of them.

Even our supply chain has a local dimension. We source a lot of our nail supplies from Sunlight Nail and Beauty Supply, a small, local retailer. When we need something unexpected, sometimes we can get a same-day delivery just because the owner knows us and they're literally down the street. That relationship doesn't exist with a national distributor. We do use the big national suppliers too (Cosmoprof, Salon Centric) because at our current scale, the cost difference matters. But if we had a local option that was even slightly more expensive, we'd prioritize it, because keeping economic activity in our community has real effects beyond our bottom line.

Here's a number that I think about a lot. Consumer spending makes up about 70% of our entire GDP. And according to Moody's Analytics, nearly half of that spending now comes from the top 10% of earners. That's the highest concentration since we started tracking it in 1989. What that tells me is that the pathways for the bottom 90% of the population to participate in the economy are being funneled upward. The money flows one direction: out of communities and into the pockets of people who will never set foot in them.

Local businesses are one of the few mechanisms that can interrupt that flow. When you buy from a local salon instead of a national chain, that money stays in your neighborhood. It pays a stylist who lives nearby. It gets spent at the grocery store down the street. It raises the quality of the businesses, the products, the services, and the economic security of that whole community. These aren't abstract benefits. They're second and third-order effects that compound over time.

This is why I feel strongly about the distinction between independent local businesses and franchises. I want to be clear: I'm not hating on anyone who owns a franchise or has decided to franchise their own business. If your goal is to grow and collect as much profit as possible, franchises are an excellent vehicle for that.

But a franchise represents a way to co-opt a local business experience for the benefit of a massive corporate brand. Everything is standardized. Your prices, your suppliers, your marketing, often your wages are all dictated by corporate. A percentage of the money your business generates leaves your community and goes up to the franchise level. And the individuality, the locality, the authenticity that makes a Main Street feel like YOUR Main Street gets stripped away in the process. So does the innovation and creativity and problem-solving that comes from business owners and even employees who have the freedom to try things their own way.

I believe there is so much to be gained from keeping that money and that creative energy in your community. From reinvesting in the literal lives of the people you employ. That's a central part of what I'm trying to do with Hundred Dollar Empire.

In fact, here's where the hypocrite label actually works in my favor. I'm specifically interested in using proceeds from the digital products and services I sell through HDE to directly fund better benefits for my salon employees. I want to be able to offer healthcare, very high quality healthcare, but at our current scale it's completely unreasonable. So one of the creative problems I'm trying to solve is whether this platform, where I share these ideas and try to create value for other aspiring business owners, can generate enough resources to bring back to my local business and invest in the people who work there.

That's the whole point. The online business serves the local one. The digital funds the physical. The scale of the internet supports the intimacy of the block.

We don't need to go back to some romanticized version of Main Street. We need to go forward, using every tool available, including technology, including e-commerce, including platforms like this newsletter, to build something better in our communities. Not just "buy fresh, buy local" with a canvas bag at the grocery store. Actually building the change you want to see, with your own hands, in your own neighborhood.

Hit reply and tell me: what kind of local business have you always thought about owning? I read every response.

Michael

I’m building out a suite of products and services to help people like you consider buying or starting then scaling a local small business. If you’re interested in learning more, let me know.