How to Celebrate Small Business Saturday

After Thanksgiving and Black Friday comes an important day for small business owners. This year, Small Business Saturday falls on November 26th, 2022. As a business owner, Small Business Saturday is a great way to promote your business and encourage consumers to support your local economy, so we have provided a few tips to help you prepare and make the most of the opportunities this day presents.

What is Small Business Saturday?

Small Business Saturday was started by American Express in an effort to support small businesses during the 2010 recession. In 2011, the day was officially recognized by the U.S. Senate and supported by all 50 states. Every year since then, Small Business Saturday has served as a day to recognize small businesses, as people opt to shop locally in a nationwide effort to direct holiday retail traffic and revenue towards small business owners rather than large corporations.

Tips for maximizing your Small Business Saturday success:

1. Prepare your marketplace – both physical and digital. If you have a physical store, you’ll need to make sure that it is properly stocked and staffed for the day. For those who don’t have a physical location, clean up your digital marketplace! Make sure the information on your website is organized and up to date so that customers can easily access your products and/or services.
2. Tell your story. It’s important to remember that customers want to shop small and support the local community, especially in an post-COVID economy. They just need a reason to specifically choose your business. Tell your brand’s story to show what really sets your business apart from big stores. How did your business start? What makes your products unique? What does your business value? These details can make potential customers become more invested in your brand and make them want to support you by purchasing your products and/or services.
3. Create compelling Small Business Saturday offers. Another way to give customers an incentive to shop small is by offering special Small Business Saturday deals. Maybe your business will have a discount on certain products for the day or offer free gift wrapping. Any sort of discount or offer is a great way to drive traffic towards your business.
4. Utilize social media. Social media is an incredible tool for small business owners when it comes to spreading word of your brand. You can promote any of your Small Business Saturday deals on social media or share news of how you’re preparing for the big day in order to get customers excited. You can also encourage customers to share pictures and selfies with your products and tag your business to increase engagement and reach even more potential customers. To really maximize the reach of your business, make sure to use the hashtag #ShopSmall on your posts to join the overall discussion.
5. Optimize your hours. Small Business Saturday may possibly be your busiest and most profitable day of the year, which means you may want to consider opening earlier or closing later to give yourself plenty of hours to bring in as much business as possible. By extending your hours, Small Business Saturday could have a huge impact on your overall sales.
6. Don’t lose momentum. Don’t let your business falter after Small Business Saturday is over. Try to maintain the relationships made with new customers by following up with them. Share pictures from the day on social media to continue to keep your business in the online conversation.

Last but certainly not least, as we approach one of the greatest times of the year for small business owners, don’t forget to analyze how the day went. What worked for you? What didn’t work? Recognizing these things can make it easier to plan for next year when you get to do it all over again!