As consumers prepare to start their holiday shopping, the next 72 hours are some of the most anticipated for businesses. While Black Friday kicks off the shopping season, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is encouraging shoppers to invest in their communities by remembering small, local options when looking for things to stuff their stockings with a holiday of their own. 

Small Business Saturday is a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities. Started in 2010, Small Business Saturday has become 

As recognized as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

Founded by American Express and officially cosponsored by SBA since 2011, Small Business Saturday has become an important part of small businesses’ busiest shopping season. Historically, reported projected spending among U.S. consumers who shopped at independent retailers and restaurants on Small Business Saturday reached an estimated $17.9 billion according to the 2022 Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey commissioned by American Express.

“I think it's incredibly important for us to support small businesses during the holiday season in particular because for many retailers, the holiday season really is their make or break. I've heard numbers in the area of 40 percent, where retailers really generate that much of their total sales for the year. It could be higher for some, could be a little bit lower for others but the holiday season really is critical for our small retailers,” shared North Carolina SBA District Director Mike Arriola. 

The SBA has made it easy to find small businesses located off the beaten path through their “Door to Shop Small” campaign. The SBA partnered with local small businesses to not only help promote the fact that they are locally owned through marketing materials, but have also created an interactive live map to help people discover the possibilities in their area. 

In Fayetteville alone more than 100 small businesses have partnered with the SBA to get the word out that they are open for business. 

North Carolina itself has nearly 1 million small businesses for their communities to support. 

“Those 900,000+ small businesses employ almost half of the total workforce in our state. The presence of predominance of small businesses in our total economic landscape is just huge. It's no stretch to say that small businesses are the backbone of our community and of our state and so, it's really important for us to show our support for these small businesses,” continued Arriola. “There's a group called Civic Economics that recently did a study about the impact of shopping small, and what they discovered is that when you spend $1 at a small business, up to 48 cents of that dollar gets recirculated in the local community, versus 14 cents if you shop elsewhere, and that's very important because small businesses are the ones who they not only hire locally, but they also are the ones that are most likely going to patronize other businesses locally.”

Find the interactive map that can help you locate small businesses  in your area here. 

Find out more about the SBA’s Small Business Saturday campaign and marketing information here.