The twelfth edition of Small Business Saturday will be held this Saturday on November 27, 2021, and is geared to encourage consumers to support local businesses by shopping small. First launched in 2010 by American Express the annual shopping holiday looks towards supporting small businesses to stay afloat by encouraging consumers to shop at their favorite small business during this holiday season.

The goal of the campaign spearheaded by American Express in partnership with the Small Business Administration (SBA) is to drive $100 billion in reported consumer spending at small businesses from 2021 through 2025. It also features a series of initiatives to drive consumers to Shop Small during the holiday season. If you want to support your local economy through supporting local small businesses here are some ways where you can do just that come this Saturday. Small Business Saturday 2021: What You Need to Know will keep you up to date on what is going to take place.

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 in 2022. 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 a small business, you’re also supporting the local economies. Spending your money at smaller businesses in your area will help stimulate the local economy and keep businesses up and running within your local region. Small businesses typically purchase supplies locally helping to keep more of the money within their communities thus creating a mutually supporting ecosystem. Because they are based in local communities, small businesses also support local communities by participating in fundraisers and holding special events to show their appreciation to their communities.

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.

From 1995 to 2020, small businesses created some 12.7 million new local jobs while large businesses created some 7.9 million jobs.

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.

How to Support Small Business on Small Business Saturday

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.

10 Inspirational Ideas Including How to Support a Small Business for Free!

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 businesses 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. There are many ways to support small businesses these include 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.

1. 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.

2. Shop at Local Businesses

You can shop at your local business during this holiday season.  Look towards doing your shopping at a small, local store rather than a large big-box chain to help your community.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. Order Takeout

Restaurants will be busy during this holiday season as more and more people are expected to drop by and order meals for the holidays. With social distancing and heavy traffic, favorite restaurants might find it difficult to accommodate all that may come through their doors, you can ease the pressure on them by opting to order take-out and order meals to be delivered to your home. In addition, many businesses are offering curbside pickup services for customers with

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. Start Shopping Early

The holiday shopping season can be overwhelming for small businesses in regards to 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.

12. 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.

13. Buy Products Online

You can help your local retail businesses by ordering from their online stores. Online shopping will help businesses fulfill your orders much quicker, make transactions quick and help you avoid those pesky long lines at the check-out counter.

14. Start a Local Business Directory

To help all the businesses in your area get more attention you can create an online directory where locals can easily find local businesses in their area that they can support.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

This article, "How to Support Small Business on Small Business Saturday" was first published on Small Business Trends