Last year, we published a Small Business Saturday article that provided an overview of the history of the event as well as the potential importance, offering a glimpse at some of the strategies that could be used by small businesses to link this celebration to their brand.
That was last year, which now seems like a decade ago!
Over 50 million confirmed Covid-19 global cases later, including over 10 million in the United States (see data), most small businesses have had to face incredible challenges as many countries closed down their economies in order to slow the progress of the pandemic.
While a truly unfortunate number of smaller operations have now permanently closed their doors, we need to take a moment this Small Business Saturday to celebrate the survivors . . . and support them in whatever means are available to us.
Expanded Internet activities. Free delivery. New products (maybe even including personal protective gear). Go Fund Me initiatives. Special Governmental programs. All of these strategies and so many more have been essential to the continued existence of the survivors.
While statistics clearly indicate that a second wave of the pandemic is upon us and caution that the upcoming holidays will require us to practice some self-restraint, we feel confident that small businesses will survive while still managing to practice governmental safety standards. Hopefully, by Small Business Saturday 2021 on November 27th, one or more vaccines will have been released and administered to a sufficiently large number of people to put this pandemic behind us for once and for all.
In the meantime, we will not use this article to do more than serve as a cheerleader for small businesses (including that of my blogging partner – Instant Invitation). Instead, we will invite you to reread our story from last year and to check out some other valuable repositories of information and strategies.
Nicolas Straut, a contributing writer at Fundera, has put together an overview of Small Business Saturday:
https://www.fundera.com/blog/small-business-saturday
Similarly, American Express, which founded the day and holds the registered trademark, makes a wide variety of useful resources available, including a Shop Small campaign:
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/shop-small/
Nestled between Black Friday (a tradition which also appears to be undergoing transformations during this time of social distancing) and Cyber Monday, which continues to grow in size and significance, the role and importance of Small Business Saturday cannot be lost.
Brand Building for Small Business 