This Saturday, November 25, marks Small Business Saturday, a day that encourages shoppers to patronize small businesses and invest in their local communities, and serves as the ceremonial kickoff to the holiday season. American Express launched this shopping holiday in 2010, at the height of the Great Recession, as a way of redirecting holiday shopping to local stores. Now it’s observed in all 50 states.
It would be great to get out there after your Turkey day and shop local, but Small Business Saturday is really just a celebration of small business and a reminder to shop small whenever you can.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy,” said Greg Britton, state director of the Florida SBDC Network. “The Florida SBDC Network encourages consumers to consider shopping small this Small Business Saturday and throughout the holiday season.”
Here are a few reasons to celebrate small businesses in South Florida and throughout the Sunshine State:
- Florida is the most entrepreneurial state in the nation. According to a recent study published by researchers at The Digital Project Manager, Florida has the highest percentage of the population that has started a business with 13,238 small businesses per 100,000 residents.
- Small businesses are continuing to proliferate. The study also found that new startup businesses in Florida also has the highest number of jobs created in their first year with 6.53 new jobs per 1,000 Floridians.
- Florida also leads the nation in new business formations with more than 2.6 million new businesses formed over the last four years.
- Many small businesses are now seeing their businesses growing again. That’s quite the feat because many of them took the hardest hit during the Covid pandemic.
This holiday season (and all year), you have the ability to make a difference. When you shop small, not only does more of your money stay local, it also has a direct, positive impact on creating more jobs and enhancing the vibrancy and diversity of your community. In a recent study by American Express, $0.68 of every dollar spent at a small business stays in the local community, and for every dollar spent at a small business, an additional $0.48 in local business activity is generated as a result of employees and local businesses purchasing local goods and services.