Shopping small can have a big effect – and Saturday is devoted to that idea.
In 2010, American Express—a financial services leader founded in New York State—launched an antidote to Black Friday’s bargain hunting hordes and Cyber Monday’s online alternative. Small Business Saturday, which falls on the weekend after Thanksgiving, began by incentivizing its cardholders to “shop small” at their local brick-and-mortar stores. The concept caught on across the country and is now promoted by the U.S. Small Business Administration, affecting Americans’ spending habits on the busiest shopping weekend of the year and beyond. In 2015, the day generated more than $16 billion in sales nationwide.
In a relatively short time, Small Business Saturday has helped shift consumer focus from malls and megastores to shops and storefronts in local communities, bringing with it a beneficial domino effect in revitalizing downtowns.
Support for small business success is something New York State provides not only on Small Business Saturday but also year-round. Empire State Development’s Division of Small Business offers a variety of resources and roadmaps, including how-to guides for those starting out, loan programs, mentoring networks and innovative incubators.
Thoue Kongmany, owner of T.K. Flooring in Rochester, knows first-hand what a difference that support can make. Kongmany’s four-year-old business expects to reach $2 million in revenues by year’s end. But just last year, the Laotian immigrant was unable to secure a traditional loan to expand his inventory and feared his business would eventually fold. He came to New York State’s Entrepreneurial Assistance Program (EAP), which helped him navigate MWBE certification as a minority-owned business and also connected him to ESD lending programs. Today he has some 20 contracts for local and statewide projects.
Salt City Coffee in Syracuse is in business selling coffee, snacks and merchandise thanks, in part, to an equipment loan that made it possible for the shop to open. The business located the loan through an alternative lender—a directory available on the Small Business Division site—that helped the business grow from a home-based wholesale business to local community café.
T.K. Flooring and Salt City Coffee are just two of New York State’s many small business success stories. In New York, small business is big, representing 98 percent of the state’s businesses and employing more than half of New York’s private sector workforce.
This Saturday, and every day, New York State is home to opportunities and resources available to entrepreneurs to maximize small business success.
