What is Small Business Saturday?
Small Business Saturday® is the first Saturday after Thanksgiving. This year it falls on Saturday, November 30. Shop Small®, started in 2010, is now a national movement to encourage community support of local small businesses.
Why Supporting Small Business is Important
Employment
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses employ 60 million private-sector employees out of the 126.8 million employees, or 47.3%.
Small businesses also created 9.6 million net new jobs between 2000 to 2018 out of the 14.8 million generated or 64.9%.
Those are some impressive statistics!
In the state of Indiana, small companies employ 1.2 million private-sector employees, accounting for 44.9% of the private workforce. Small businesses in Indiana created 34,813 net new jobs in 2016, with most of the jobs created in companies with 20 or fewer employees.
Quite simply, small businesses in Indiana are creating jobs for our youth, our family members, and our friends.
Economics
In addition to their employment impact, small businesses also make a tremendous economic impact in other ways in our local communities.
Local businesses are paying local taxes to support our community roads, schools, and parks. Local companies are more likely to use other local businesses for things like banking, support services, dining, and more.
Multiple studies show that the economic returns of small businesses are substantially higher than national retail chains, with local retailers returning as much as 52% of their revenue to the local economy, compared to just 14% for the national chain retailers.
Small businesses are even generous to local non-profits. According to a survey by Funding Circle, 52% of small business owners donate to charity.
Identity
Most importantly, small businesses provide character and identity for our local communities, which benefits us all in a myriad of ways.
Small businesses tend to carry products made by local artisans or sourced from local farms or suppliers, providing more diversity and selection than big-box retailers or chain restaurants can offer.
Small businesses are aware of the traditions and interests relevant to the local community, fueling community pride. And the people running and working in these small businesses are your neighbors, friends, and classmates, meaning more personalized and prompt customer service.
Great Jobs
Finally, small businesses tend to be among the happiest places to work, with the workplace perceived as less stressful, more fun, and more receptive to employee ideas and opinions.
This Saturday, November 30, we encourage you to join the #ShopSmall movement. Shop and dine at your favorite local spots. Seek out and learn about new small businesses near you and visit them. Share information on social media about your favorite small businesses and encourage your friends and family to #ShopSmall too.
The goal is to increase awareness of the critical role small businesses play in our local community and increase the support of small businesses all year long.
