How To Prepare Your Business For Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday is a special day dedicated to recognizing small businesses and brick-and-mortar stores across the country. It encourages holiday shoppers to support local independent businesses and boost sales. American Express founded Small Business Saturday in 2010, giving small businesses a chance to get more customers during the busy holiday shopping season. On this day, which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 25 this year (wedged between Black Friday and Cyber Monday), small business owners need to take advantage of the rare opportunity for free advertising bankrolled by a major corporation.

Since its inception, this special day has garnered massive success over the years to become the biggest sales day of the year for many small companies. According to American Express, 112 million consumers spent $15.4 million at such businesses in the last year.

If you own a small business, whether it’s a restaurant, fitness studio, barbershop, salon or grocery store, it’s time you started getting ready for one of the most important days of the year. With free resources, event guides, online ads and other marketing materials to get your business’ name out there, this day offers the perfect opportunity to gain new customers, grow sales and carry momentum into the holiday shopping season.

There are many ways to capitalize on this day. Business owners can plan promotions, sales or events to market their products and services. Make sure you create awareness on social media. This is a great time to engage with customers on a one-on-one basis. You can sell gift cards, host open houses with sales and promotions, raffles or freebies or provide services at discounted prices. On this day, it is also important to collaborate with other local businesses to send customers to each other. In this case, e-commerce can look to collaborate with businesses that have a brick-and-mortar presence so they can meet customers in person.

With Black Friday and Small Business Saturday marking the beginning of the busy holiday season, now is an excellent time to evaluate your inventory levels. It is never a good show to turn customers away because you have depleted your stock. You need to re-stock on the best-selling items ahead of time and if it requires, hire extra salespeople and clerks to help drive your marketing strategy.

CMS Funding is ready to provide you with a working capital loan to make sure you are prepared to meet the demand for the rest of the holiday shopping season. Contact us today to learn more and make the best use of this coming Small Business Saturday.