Join the celebration this Saturday, November 27th, and support your locally owned, independent businesses as downtown Winslow celebrates SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY on Bainbridge Island.
Small businesses across the country are joining more than a dozen advocacy, public, and private organizations in declaring the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday recognizes the importance of small businesses to the overall economy and local communities, emphasizing that small business is the heartbeat of local communities and the engine of the US economy and serving as a day to support the small, independently owned businesses that help preserve the unique character of our towns’ main streets across America.
Over the past two decades, small businesses created 65 percent of net new jobs. In addition, for every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures.
Here are the top five reasons to support a small business on Small Business Saturday:
Pass these five reasons around your community —
1. Buying local creates jobs:
We all want more jobs, but no one seems to be able to create them. Buying local is YOUR chance to do something about it.
Did you know that half of all employees in the U.S. work for small business, and that small businesses create 60 percent of all new jobs? By participating in Small Business Saturday you foster job creation in a very real and tangible way. Buy local, create a job.
2. Small business fosters community:
If you go downtown in your city, the community you will likely find is one of small business owners. When a downtown has a bustling small business district, it is usually said there is a strong community there. By buying local then, and supporting your neighborhood small businesses, you are fostering a strong community in your community.
3. Buying local keeps the dream alive:
A small business is someone’s dream. Being an entrepreneur is a risky enterprise that usually happens when someone’s passion is so overpowering they cannot help but start their own business.
By supporting small business, you are allowing someone to live the dream another day.
4. Buying local boosts your local economy:
There is an economic ripple effect that occurs when you support a small business. First of all, as indicated, it fosters jobs; the owner needs to hire people to service his customers.
But the economic ripple goes far beyond that. There are the employees with money in their pocket; they spend that money with other small businesses. Moreover, there is the business owner with profit in her pocket. She spends that on buying more goods to sell, on taking care of her family, and on growing her business. Then, there is the business. That business pays taxes, which helps build roads and fund schools and the police.
Buying local creates an economic cycle that helps everyone.
5. Buying local creates a ripple in society: Think about throwing a pebble into a still pond. It creates a concentric circle that starts small and then ripples out bigger and bigger, right? Well, that is exactly what happens when you support a local small business, and this ripple is different than the economic ripple. This is a spiritual/psychological ripple.
When a small business person succeeds, it is noticed. It may be a child who sees that dreams do come true. Or it may be the entrepreneur’s neighbor, who sees the successes and decides that he could do it too. The ripple grows.
One successful small business begets others. New entrepreneurs create more entrepreneurs. Enthusiasm breeds imitation. Suddenly, that blighted block downtown is bustling with energy.
And it all starts, literally, when you choose to spend some money at a local small business.
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