With the warmer weather that lasted from October to November this year, the holidays may have just started to creep up on you out of nowhere. It seems summer just ended, and we were still mowing our lawns. However, it is indeed autumn, thus Thanksgiving, and eventually Christmas are coming full steam ahead!
The week of Thanksgiving is in particularly impactful. Families traditionally get together, and relatives fly across country to see each other. The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at JCC, is truly thankful for this time of year. It is one of the most caring and reflective seasons. This is also why the SBDC is excited for Small Business Saturday, since the SBDC works with local new and existing small businesses.
Small Business Saturday (the Saturday after Thanksgiving) was created in 2010 by American Express as a day to shop local small businesses and infuse dollars in the local economy. Since then it has taken on a life of its own. Now the whole nation encourages individuals to shop on Small Business Saturday, because we know small businesses are the backbone of the nation’s economy.
If you have been watching the news lately you may have noticed there have been many stories regarding the nation’s supply chain shortages. Retailers large and small are anticipating not having the quantities of items as they normally would have. This is expected to affect the holiday shopping season, making it as vital as ever to shop with local small businesses, during these tough times. Every dollar spent at small businesses strengthens the local economy.
Luckily Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties have a plentiful variety of small businesses in the area, to handle our local shopping needs. These businesses support our local economy in so many profoundly important ways. Shopping at these businesses keeps our money, in our area. According to Fundera by Nerd Wallet “Small businesses generate $68 of local economic return for every $100 spent with them. Over $9.3 billion would be directly returned to our economy if every US family spent just $10 a month at a local business. Businesses with fewer than 500 employees account for 99.7% of all US employers.”
The Small Business Administration states, “small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy: they create two-thirds of net new jobs and drive U.S. innovation and competitiveness.” By shopping at small businesses we tell small businesses we appreciate and understand their value in our community. In 2020 alone, there was $19.8 billion spent on Small Business Saturday! That is up from the $19.6 billion spent in 2019 (according to the Small Business Administration). The SBDC encourages everyone to shop small on Small Business Saturday, to make this the best Small Business Saturday so far. What better day to shop local than Small Business Saturday?