Saturday inherently promotes small businesses
by helping them generate even more revenue
during the busy holiday season. It reminds
people that while they may get great deals at
department stores or big-name brands on Black
Friday, there are still opportunities to spend
locally and get a great deal.
3. Skip Black Friday
Unless it’s to support a small business,
consider staying home on Black Friday. One way
to support small businesses is to not spend your
money at non-small businesses like department
stores or major national or international brand
stores. Those places are likely to be total zoos
on Black Friday anyway—so save yourself the
hassle and visit a small business instead.
4. Choose Small Businesses During the
Holidays
The holidays are always a major boost
for businesses—this past holiday season
spending exceeded $850 billion, up 5.1% from
the previous year—and is always a healthy
percentage of consumer spending for the whole
year.
This holiday season, think about where you’re
spending your money. Although ecommerce is
becoming more and more of a driving force
for economic growth—due to convenience of
shipping and ecommerce advertising efforts—
it’s worthwhile to consider how you can support
small businesses during this all-important
revenue period.
5. Word of Mouth
If you have a good experience at a small
business, talk about it! Word-of-mouth
marketing drives $6 trillion in annual consumer
spending and accounts for 13% of all consumer
sales. The more people you can tell about a
small business, the more you are helping that
business.
6. Partner With Another Small Business
to cross-promote your business with another
small business to generate revenue for the both
of you. You can do this by providing discounts
for small business patronage. Say you own a
bakery and want to partner with the wine
store down the street, you could offer
discount bread orders for people who
come to your bakery with a receipt from
the wine store, and vice versa. Advertise
this feature in both your store fronts and
in your two businesses. And hopefully, of
course, more revenue.
7. Host an Event for Small Business
Owners
Gather with other small business
owners in your community to collaborate
on ideas. This is a great way to encourage
partnerships and other ideas that can help
overall. Encouraging small businesses to
support each other or work together is a great
way to support the health of your local small
business community.
8. Organize a Community Event
Small Business Saturday doesn’t have to
be the only revenue-generating event of the
season. Think of ways you can generate more
buzz about small businesses through events and
get customers through those shop doors. Small
businesses can sponsor the event, sell their
wares, and promote special deals. Examples
of events could be a local block party, carnival,
festival, or parade.
9. Partner With Community Organizations
Nothing says local like sponsoring a little
league team or working with the Girl Scouts on
a project. If you are involved in a community
organization, look at how you can partner with
small businesses in innovative ways. Maybe you
team up to clean the park, or invite a business to
make a guest appearance at a school event.
10. Last-Minute Holiday Shopping
In the days immediately leading up to
Christmas, ecommerce shopping shows a sharp
decline. This is because products ordered a
few days before Christmas won’t be delivered
on time. This is a great opportunity for local
small businesses to attract consumers to their
brick-and-mortar stores. Although online
shopping can feel convenient, customers can
avoid concerns about last-minute shipping by
shopping locally. Advertising this insight and
providing incentives for last minutes shoppers
is a great way to encourage more customers to
shop at small businesses.
11. Encourage Family and Friends to Shop
at Small Businesses
If your spouse usually does the grocery
shopping at Whole Foods, encourage them to
try out the local supermarket. Tell your friends
you’ll only accept gifts from small businesses.
Refuse to go to dinner at franchise restaurants.
These are just a few of the ways you can
to support small businesses.
12. Share Small Business Content on Social
Media
Enjoying the cookie from your local bakery?
Share it on Instagram. Shopping for gifts at a
local boutique? Check in on Facebook. Sharing
on social media when you patronize a small
business is free advertising for that business and
a great way to encourage others to patronize
them as well.
13. Leave Positive Reviews of Small
Businesses Online
You can help small businesses by taking the
time to leave positive reviews on sites like Yelp,
Foursquare, and Google. This will increase their
visibility in search results when consumers go to
sense of trust in small businesses.
14. Show Your Appreciation
Small business owners work hard for their
customers. What better way to reward them
than by showing them how much they mean to
you and the community. You can do this in a
number of different ways. Maybe send them a
thank you card, or drop off a gift. You could
also just say “thank you” after every visit.
Demonstrating your gratitude for their hard
work motivates small business owners to keep
doing a great job.
15. Launch a Kickstarter
Is there a long-standing small business in your
community that has fallen on hard times? What
a little extra umph? In these situations, you may
consider launching a Kickstarter campaign to
crowdfund for that business. Kickstarter allows
anyone to launch a campaign to support goods
or services.
Perhaps seeing someone not involved with the
business try so ardently to help it will foster the
momentum needed to help the campaign take
off. Even if you don’t reach your fundraising
goal, it is still a lovely gesture and a great way to
draw awareness to a business.
Less Talk, More Action
There are so many ways to support small
businesses—with your money, your business,
community organizing efforts, or thoughtful
consumer habits. Supporting small businesses
in your community supports the community at
large.
Now that we have provided you with ideas,
it is time to act. Maybe you start by foregoing
Starbucks for the local coffee shop. Or by
leaving a kind review for that deli that makes
your favorite sandwich. There are lots of tiny
actions you can take that will mean the world to
the small business owners in your community.
So what are you waiting for? Get started!
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