Shout Your Local is helping venues with cashflow during COVID-19

With the live music industry at a standstill, a social enterprise project called Shout Your Local is helping provide cashflow for live music venues, pubs, cafes and restaurants.

The premise is simple. With tours cancelled or postponed due to travel restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, Shout Your Local allows punters to buy a gift voucher to use at their local venue in the future.

Local businesses can sign up at shoutyourlocal.com, so that patrons can provide some much-needed cashflow and also guarantee business for when venues are able to reopen.

Shout Your Local is the brainchild of Mark Murphy and business partner Josh, who've previously worked with some of Melbourne's most popular venues through their event tech business.

The pair have worked to make sure venues get paid out for the voucher purchases on a daily basis as well, ensuring venues and businesses get immediate support from future patrons.

“As Covid-19 hit, our customers were some of the first businesses to shut their doors with a devastating impact on their businesses, their lives and the communities they support,” they said.

“However as we began cancelling event listings our ticket holders began to ask if it was possible to donate or keep their ticket for a (presumable) future event.

"This gave us the idea for a website where passionate locals can ‘pay it forward’ by buying gift vouchers for tomorrow, and help our local cafes, pubs, restaurants and music venues with cashflow today.”

100 Burgers Group is one of the many businesses who've already signed up on the site.

“It’s a tough time for hospo and the people that work in it, which is why programs like Shout Your Local are so important," 100 Burgers Group's Jackie Doran tells TMN exclusively.

"The vouchers people buy now are going to support our team in this very weird world, plus guarantee you a ripper future night out (and probably a high five too, if that’s allowed.)"

Voucher information and sales can be managed on the website, downloaded as a spreadsheet for manual redemption or integrated with Shopify, Square and Vend point of sale systems.

For more information head to Shout Your Local's Official Website.