Every Friday after Thanksgiving begins the madness that is known as “Black Friday”, a day when most retailers hope to get ‘into the black’ on their ledgers. Lost in the shuffle has been small business owners, who lack the advertising resources and revenue to compete with large businesses, especially the ‘big box stores’ and mall anchors such as Walmart, Target, Sears, etc. This fortunately changed recently, with the incarnation of “Small Business Saturday”, a program that American Express helped to conceive in 2010 (1).

Small Business Saturday 2013 Promotion and Ideas for You!

As a small business marketing firm, our desire is to help you to spread the word about your small business, and any promotion you will be offering on this Saturday, November 30th, 2013. If you are participating in Small Business Saturday (you do not have to be with the ‘official’ American Express program), we would love to help you spread the word, so please either email us, post on our Facebook Page, or ask us to RT (re-tweet) your information on Twitter and Google +. We will be offering this service for free to any local small business owners, either here in Venice Florida, or nationwide. Working together, we can make a difference and let customers know the advantage of shopping locally and supporting the small businesses in their community.

If you are looking for additional information on Small Business Saturday 2013, please check out the following links:

Small Business Saturday 2013 http://www.sba.gov/about-sba/sba_initiatives/small_business_saturday_2013

American Express Small Business Saturday Resources (both personalized and downloadable materials for your use, like the logo below): https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/shop-small/resources?linknav=us-open-shopsmall-homepage-resources

You may also want to check out the official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday

Please also encourage your followers and likes on Twitter and Facebook to mention your business and community when they shop, using a format such as this to help spread the buzz: “I will #ShopSmall for (favorite thing to shop for) at (small business store) in (your town) on Nov 30”

So a followers post may look like this: “I will #ShopSmall for magic toys at Cabaret of Magic in VENICE on Nov 30″

To further increase excitement, offer special gifts or discounts for those who participate or share your information. A great tool for this is Foursquare, which is a participating social media platform that allows small businesses to post coupons, specials, and information that can be instantaneously used by those who ‘check in’ at your business on Foursquare. Click the following link for more info: http://blog.foursquare.com/2012/08/01/looking-for-a-place-to-go-shop-small-and-look-out-for-promoted-specials-from-americanexpress-at-over-100000-local-businesses/

 We also recommend you either join your local Chamber of Commerce, or consult with them for ideas on how to increase exposure this Small Business Saturday 2013. In Venice Florida, you can reach the Venice Area Chamber of Commerce at http://www.venicechamber.com/ or at 941-488-2236941-488-2236

Do not forget here in Venice, the Holiday Parade starts at 5pm on Saturday the 30th as well, so this should increase traffic even more. http://www.venicegov.com/Calendar/Events/wc20131130.html

No matter what, we wish you to have a fun and successful Small Business Saturday 2013, this coming Saturday, and every day!

Thanks for reading and Make it a great day!

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Saturday