Overcoming Busy

Top Ten Reasons To Support Small Businesses This Christmas

November 22, 2011 by Marci

With Black Friday looming on the horizon, my inbox and mailbox are full of ads and catalogs vying for my business. It seems my only job is to match up my gift list with the box store ad of my choice and join the minions wrestling in the aisles for the last latest thing. Then, I can stand in line with an angry mob until it is my turn to throw some money at a grumpy hourly employee that will be put into the coffers of some far off corporate entity. Merry Christmas.

This year, I choose to do something different. I am going to support small businesses both in my local community and in my social online community. It’s my way of spending my money where I can be the biggest blessing. The more I looked into it, there are lots of other great reasons to support small businesses.

1. Small businesses offer better customer service.
2. Small businesses offer unique gifts. No more worrying if the recipient will get one just like it.
3. Small businesses are good for the local economy. Small businesses return more of every dollar back into the local economy that large chain stores.
4. Small businesses keep America working. According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses employ about half of all private sector employees and have generated 65% of the new jobs created in the past 17 years.
5. Small businesses offer quality over quantity. Small businesses are more apt to have quality handcrafted items than mass produced plastic junk.
6. Small businesses are more connected to their customers. Most times, customers deal directly with the owners of small businesses. The owners can adapt and offer what their customers want.
7. Small businesses are less crowded than chains or are online.
8. Shopping small businesses support people that we know.
9. Shopping small businesses saves time.
10. Shopping small businesses supports the creativity and rewards the ingenuity and risks of the owners.

Small businesses can be mom and pop storefronts, home-based distributorships, home-based artisans, restaurants… They are all over. We all know them. Look at my sponsor ads on the side of my blog. They are small businesses. (Really incredible small businesses, at that.) They are certainly worthy of your support.

I encourage you to support small businesses this Christmas season. My friends Stef at StefLayton.com and Eryn at Mama Hall agree. Head to their sites where they are showing their support for small businesses today, too. We will all be spotlighting small businesses each Tuesday until Christmas. Want to join us? Link up a post about a small business you plan to support this Christmas!

*linking up to Top Ten Tuesday at Oh Amanda!