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Small Business Saturday will take place the Saturday after Thanksgiving, encouraging consumers to support local businesses by shopping small. First launched by American Express in 2010, this annual shopping event aims to help small businesses thrive by motivating consumers to shop at their favorite local stores during the holiday season.
The campaign, led by American Express in partnership with the Small Business Administration (SBA), aims to drive $100 billion in reported consumer spending at small businesses over a multi-year period. It includes various initiatives encouraging consumers to Shop Small during the holiday season. If you’re looking to support your local economy by backing small businesses, here are some ways to do just that. Small Business Saturday: What You Need to Know will keep you informed on what to expect during this event.
Why Support Small Business?
According to the American Express Shop Small Impact survey, more than half (56%) of small businesses view that this year’s Small Business Saturday is more critical than ever for their business and 78% say holiday sales will impact their ability to keep their doors open. It is projected that consumers shopping small this holiday season have the potential to contribute an estimated $695 billion to the nation’s small business economy.
When you support small businesses, you also contribute to the vitality of local economies. Spending your money at smaller enterprises in your area helps stimulate the local economy and ensures that businesses remain operational within your region. Small businesses often source their supplies locally, which keeps more of the money circulating within their communities, thereby fostering a mutually supportive ecosystem. Additionally, as they are rooted in local areas, small businesses engage with their communities by participating in fundraisers and hosting special events to express their gratitude.
Benefits to Community and Economy When You Support a Small Business
- Small businesses help to create and sustain local jobs thus contributing to job creation and boosting local community economies.
- Small businesses account for some 99.9% of all firms across the nation.
- They contribute to some 43.5% of the nation’s goods and services.
- They generate some 460 billion in exports (31.6% of all exports).
- More than half (50.8%) of small businesses are women-owned.
Small Business Saturday is designed to help small businesses partake in the holiday shopping season. The Small Business Saturday is placed in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday allowing small businesses to capture some badly needed revenues to compete with big box stores and stay afloat during this holiday season. As such American Express is rolling out a series of campaigns under the banner Shop Small geared at helping small business owners make the best of the holiday shopping and even providing them with free marketing resources to entice consumers to shop at their favorite small business. Consumers can support their favorite small business by shopping at their establishments; supporting and participating in Small Business Saturday events in their area, or even becoming a Neighborhood Champions or Shop Small ambassador to help encourage their community to shop locally throughout the holiday season, and beyond.
Inspirational Ideas Including How to Support a Small Business for Free!
Small Business Saturday aims to assist small businesses in participating in the holiday shopping season. Scheduled between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this day allows small businesses to generate essential revenue to compete with larger corporations and remain viable during the holiday period. In this effort, American Express is launching a series of campaigns under the Shop Small initiative, which is designed to help small business owners maximize their holiday sales and provide them with free marketing resources to attract consumers to their favorite local shops. There are numerous ways to support small businesses, including shopping at their locations, participating in Small Business Saturday events in your community, or becoming a Neighborhood Champion or Shop Small ambassador to encourage local shopping throughout the holiday season and beyond.
Buy Gift Cards
You can start buying gift cards for family and friends to be used for future purchases. This will help your local businesses generate some badly needed revenue from these sales while also allowing you to get that perfect gift for your loved ones while introducing them to your favorite local business.
Shop at Local Businesses
You can support your community this holiday season by shopping at your local businesses. Consider choosing a small, local store instead of a large big-box chain for your holiday shopping.
Post Online Reviews
You can post positive reviews online of your local shops describing what great purchases are being offered as well as the accompanying service. You can review sites which you can do completely free and will also encourage new customers from the community to drop by stores and make purchases.
Tip More Than Usual
This is a season for giving make sure to tip a little extra this season to help employees and businesses earn a little extra cash and show them that you care this holiday season.
Shop Small Businesses Before Big Businesses
Don’t wait to drop by at your local small business till the last minute. Make sure that you go to your local small shop and make purchases of what is available before going out and splurging at big stores.
Share Social Media Posts
Boost the buzz on your local businesses by sharing stories and pictures of your purchases. Remember small businesses thrive when there is a concerted effort by everyone to make sure that they thrive and succeed.
Check-In with Small Business Owners and Employees
Small Businesses Saturday is all about community spirit as such drop by your local stores and businesses to wish them a great holiday season as well as see if they have a special event that you can participate in during this holiday season.
Order Takeout
Restaurants are expected to be quite busy this holiday season, as an increasing number of people will visit to order meals for their celebrations. Due to social distancing measures and heavy traffic, favorite restaurants may struggle to serve everyone who comes through their doors. You can help alleviate some of this pressure by choosing to order take-out or having meals delivered to your home. Furthermore, many businesses are providing curbside pickup services for customers who
Participate in Small Business Saturday
You can show some community spirit by promoting and participating in Small Business Saturday events. You can volunteer to take part in Small Business Saturday events in your area or even host an event yourself to encourage others to buy locally. Consider becoming a Neighborhood champion and take charge of organizing events or promotions to encourage people and businesses about Small Business Saturday in your community.
Use the American Express Shop Small Map
You can use the American Express Shop Small Map to discover and shop at small businesses in your area.
Start Shopping Early
The holiday shopping season can be overwhelming for small businesses in terms of fulfilling orders and managing heavy foot traffic. To ease the stress plan to start your holiday shopping early, this will help you avoid the long lines as well as improve the business’s cash flow to get more stock in their inventory during the holidays.
Use Word of Mouth to Refer People
Tap into your network of family, friends, and colleagues to encourage Of course, you can also help simply by talking about your favorite small businesses to others via text, phone calls, or video calls.
Buy Products Online
You can support your local retail businesses by purchasing from their online stores. Shopping online enables businesses to process your orders more efficiently, facilitates quick transactions, and helps you avoid those frustrating long lines at the checkout counter.
Start a Local Business Directory
To enhance visibility for local businesses, consider creating an online directory that allows residents to easily discover and support small businesses in their community.
Have Patience
The holiday season can take a toll on everyone. An uptick in sales during this holiday season could lead to long lines and long working hours for employees at small businesses which may cause delays and mistakes. You will need to understand that they are under an enormous amount of stress so help them out by showing patience when you encounter bad in-store experiences.
Discover new local businesses
Make sure to take a look around your locality to window shop, discover, and purchase from local shops. Look for a local grocer, book shop, or retails in your area that is offering unique products and services which you can use you never know there might be a shop nearby that is offering that special gift that has eluded you for so long.
Opt to Prepay Now for Future Purchases
You can opt to prepay for merchandise at your local small business to help them fulfill orders way ahead of time. This will help businesses not only manage orders way before peak season, manage supply chain hiccups as well as have cash readily available to them to run their operation.
Prioritize brick and mortar
Small businesses are mostly family-owned like mom-and-pop shops. A great way to support local small businesses is to do your part by making sure that you and your community continue to visit brick-and-mortar stores instead of large department stores.
Continue to Support Small Businesses All Year Round
Supporting small businesses is all about showing the small business owner that you are choosing them over a larger competitor with seemingly infinite resources. Many small businesses rely on their local community to succeed so your support to them should not be a one-off thing for Small Business Saturday only. Make sure that you continue to shop local during this holiday season and beyond to help build community, support local employment, and boost the local economy.
Now that we have provided you with some great ideas on how to support small businesses in your community it is time to start going out and show your solidarity towards for favorite businesses. Go out today and visit your local cafe, restaurant, grocery, store, or salon and partake in this much-needed community spirit.
Image: Depositphotos
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