RS Vacations – Big Bear Lake, CA

Now here is a ‘holiday’ I can get behind. Small Business Saturday is more than just helping the economy, it is about helping people. Probably people you know-friends, neighbors, family members. Someone you know makes a living by running their own business. It is how they pay their mortgage, put food on their table and send their kids to college. Buying at local small businesses helps them and boots your local economy. As a regular shopper of the big-box stores, I realize that sometimes you have to go for the best deal possible, but a couple of times a month, try stopping in a local mom and pop shop and support someone that is trying to survive in a difficult economy.

Here is a brief history of ‘Small Business Saturday’:

Small Business Saturday is an American shopping holiday held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. First celebrated on November 27, 2010, it is a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which feature big box retail and e-commerce stores respectively. By contrast, Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick and mortar businesses that are small and local.

In 2010 the holiday was conceived and promoted by American Express via a nationwide radio and television advertising campaign. That year Amex bought advertising inventory on Facebook, which it in turn gave to its small merchant account holders, and also gave rebates to new customers to promote the event.

American Express publicized the initiative using social media, advertising, and public relations. At least 41  local politicians and many small business groups in the United States issued proclamations concerning the campaign, which generated more than one million Facebook “like” registrations and nearly 30,000 tweets under the Twitter hashtags #smallbusinesssaturday (which had existed since early 2010) and #smallbizsaturday.

Cinda Baxter, founder of The 3/50 Project, was national spokesperson for Small Business Saturday its first year. The 3/50 Project encourages consumers to commit to spending $50 of their current monthly budgets with independently owned small businesses they care about.

The Twitter hashtag #SmallBusinessSaturday has existed since early 2010 and was used to promote small businesses on any Saturday (not solely that Saturday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday). The hashtag is used in a manner similar to #FollowFriday to highlight favorite local businesses.