How Be Successful This Small Business Saturday: Make Retail Personal

November 25 is this year’s official Small Business Saturday, a day when local retailers can strut their stuff on a Saturday bookended between mass-retailers’ Black Friday madness and e-tailers’ Cyber Monday frenzy. Conceived by American Express, the company reported that small businesses generated some $15.4 billion dollars on Small Business Saturday last year. American Express explains the goal, “to support these local places that make our communities strong” with plans “to bring more holiday shopping to small businesses.” Small Business Saturday brings much-needed attention to an often overlooked contributor to the U.S. economy. The National Retail Federation reports there are some 3,793,621 retail establishments, and nearly 99% count as small businesses with less than 50 employees. Owners of small retail shops often feel overwhelmed by the rapidly changing retail environment with competition on all sides and most especially from Amazon. Small business retailers have a competitive edge that none of these bigger, better capitalized and techno-powered retailers have: Their personal touch. It is realized not just through the personal service that specialty retailers offer, but by being vital members of the local community, like Beekman 1802, which has been instrumental in bringing new life back to its small town of Sharon Springs in upstate New York. Read more at Forbes.