Rutherford County has roughly 400 locally-owned businesses in Murfreesboro's Main Street district alone. The Public Square has 90+ independent businesses within walking distance of the 1859 Rutherford County Courthouse. Smyrna and La Vergne have their own pockets of independent operators — less visible, equally worth knowing.
The county is also adding 50 to 60 new residents every day. That's 50 to 60 people who don't yet have a list of local businesses they trust, who will default to chains unless someone tells them about the better options.
Here's what actually moves the needle for local business owners in Rutherford County.
Spend Money There First
This one is obvious but undersaid: the most meaningful thing you can do for a local business is buy something from them. Not share their post. Not leave a review (though that matters too). Spend money there.
Rutherford County's independent businesses compete on quality and community, not on logistics infrastructure or loyalty app rewards programs. When you choose Joanie's on the Public Square over a drive-through chain, or Crying Cat Books and Records over Amazon, or MurfreesBoro Kabob over a fast-casual franchise, the margin difference between staying open and closing is literal. These aren't abstract statements about local economies. In a county growing as fast as this one, established independent businesses lose customers constantly to newcomers who default to what's familiar — chains.
Show Up to Downtown Events
Main Street Murfreesboro runs events that bring foot traffic directly to independent businesses on and around the square:
Friday Night Live: Live music on the courthouse square, July 11, August 8, and September 19, from 6:30 to 9 PM. Free, open to the public. Every person who shows up is a potential customer at a surrounding business.
Main Street Farmers Market: Regular weekend market with local vendors, produce, and handmade goods. An entire ecosystem of micro-businesses that don't have permanent storefronts.
These events are good in themselves, and they're also how independent businesses get exposed to people who wouldn't otherwise walk into a shop they'd never noticed. Showing up is a form of support even if you don't buy anything that night — you're part of the foot traffic that justifies the event, which justifies the surrounding businesses staying open.
Leave Reviews, Specifically
Generic five-star reviews don't do much. A review that describes what you ordered, what made it good, or what kind of person would like the business — that's what drives decisions.
When Joanie's wins four Main Street Murfreesboro awards and gets featured on America's Best Restaurants and Tennessee Crossroads, that exposure matters. But for every restaurant or shop that gets featured, there are fifty that only get exposure from the reviews left by customers who took two minutes to write something real.
This is especially true on Google. Google reviews feed directly into local search ranking. A locally-owned business in Smyrna or La Vergne with 15 genuine reviews showing up in local search results is a different category of visibility than the same business with no reviews.
Tell One Person
Rutherford County's best-kept independent businesses survive on referrals. That's how they've operated for years, and in a fast-growing county, the referral chain breaks when long-term residents don't make introductions.
If you know a great mechanic on NW Broad Street, a good tailor in Murfreesboro, or a restaurant downtown that nobody's written up yet — tell one person. Tell the newcomer on your block who just moved from Nashville and is still figuring out where things are. That conversation has direct dollar value to the business you're describing.
Buy Gift Cards During Slow Periods
The county's independent restaurants and retailers have predictable slow periods — mid-January through February, slow Tuesday afternoons, the dead week between Christmas and New Year's. Gift card purchases during slow periods are immediate cash flow for businesses running on tight margins.
This matters more than buying on their busiest Saturday, when they're already doing fine. January is when restaurants need the revenue. A gift card in January for a birthday dinner in March is a specific, practical way to help.
Follow and Share Locally, But Actually Engage
Most Rutherford County independent businesses have Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts. Sharing a post or tagging someone who'd be interested in a specific business is low-effort and meaningful at the margin.
The higher-leverage version: when a local business posts about something specific — a new menu item, a sale, a new service — engage with it in a way that tells a real person. "Hey, you'd like this place" sent directly to someone who might actually go is worth more than 100 passive reshares to an audience that doesn't act on them.
Use Rutherford Roundup
Rutherford Roundup is the local directory for this county. When you use it to find a business instead of defaulting to Google Maps or Yelp, you're sending traffic to a platform that specifically surfaces independent local operators rather than chain businesses.
If you find a business through Rutherford Roundup and have a good experience, suggest any businesses you know that aren't listed yet. The directory is only as useful as the listings it has.
What Supporting Local Actually Does
The economic case for local spending is well-established: studies consistently show that local businesses recirculate a higher percentage of revenue within the local economy than national chains. Employees are local, suppliers are more often regional, and owner income stays in the community.
In Rutherford County's specific context, the case is also about retention of character. The county is growing fast enough that its commercial corridors could easily homogenize into chain-only zones — the kind of landscape that erases every distinguishing characteristic between Murfreesboro and any other fast-growing suburb. The independent businesses on the Public Square, on NW Broad, in Smyrna and La Vergne, are what make this county worth living in. Keeping them open requires spending money there.
FAQ
Does Main Street Murfreesboro have a program for supporting local businesses? Main Street Murfreesboro is the organization that manages the historic downtown district and runs events like Friday Night Live and the Main Street Farmers Market. Their website (mainstreetmurfreesboro.org) has current event listings and information on their member businesses.
Are there local business awards I should be aware of? Yes. Main Street Murfreesboro runs annual awards voted on by residents — best breakfast, best coffee shop, best dining deal, and other categories. The 2025 winners are publicly available and a useful signal for which downtown businesses have strong community standing.
How do I find locally-owned businesses to support? Browse Rutherford Roundup by category →. Filter by city to find what's in your part of the county.