With the holiday shopping season around the corner, Isothermal Community College in conjunction with the North Carolina Community College Small Business Center Network, encourage you to “Shop Small” on Nov. 29 by supporting local small businesses. Nestled between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday has quickly become a nationally recognized day to support your local independent merchants with the power of your dollar.

“We have a great opportunity to use our shopping dollars to support our local small businesses during this holiday season.  When our small businesses succeed, our community sees greater economic growth,” said Faye Bishop, director of the Small Business Center at ICC.

Small Business Saturday was founded by American Express in 2010 as a day to celebrate local businesses through the launch of the holiday shopping season. The day has since grown into a powerful movement in support of local small businesses that make our community unique.
Consumer spending with independent merchants during the 2013 Small Business Saturday neared $5.7 billion according to the results of a survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business. A recent forecast by consulting and financial advising firm Deloitte, US indicates that holiday shopping sales are expected to increase by as much as 4.5 percent in the 2014 season, with sales expecting to total between $981 and $986 billion.
Sixty million workers in the United States are employed by small business, accounting for approximately half of the private sector workforce. The Small Business Administration reports that small businesses were also the driving force for 63 percent of new net private sector jobs created between 1993 and mid-2013.  Furthermore, in the state of North Carolina, 47 percent of the workforce is employed in a small business setting.
Small Business Saturday is our opportunity to support the local small businesses that provide economic vitality and quality of life to our community. The SBCN encourages you to use the power of your dollar to “Shop Small” on November 29 and help make a lasting impact in the place you call home.

 

–Submitted by Michael Gavin