Six Sweet Small Business Saturday Infographics #SmallBizSat

Since 2010, American Express has been leading the celebration of Small Business Saturday. This year, one of my clients, Web.com is among the corporate partners. What’s all this then?

“Small Business Saturday is a day dedicated to strengthening the community by supporting local, independently owned small businesses.”

Why do small businesses, especially local ones, need our support?

Because I have a small business.

Wait, that didn’t come out right.

This list of reasons to support small local businesses has two of my favorite reasons on it.

1. It keeps money in your local economy
2. Businesses with revenue tend to be better able to create jobs. (Often, better jobs, to hear them tell it.)

Small businesses drive the US economy – the vast majority of businesses are small. Good economy = good excuses to buy things we don’t really need but are really cool like the Microsoft Surface or a newer IPad. (Not the mini. That’s clearly a mistake.)

So it’s generally good for everyone, as the data behind several of the infographics below will also prove. And if you own a small, local, or even more outstandingly, a small local business? The infographics below have

• tips you can share with your audience, without sounding all preachy or desperate
• ways for you to be better at growth
• intriguing tips you might not be aware of yet

The Six Sweet Small Business Saturday Infographics

Now, since I’m not an irrational person, I’m not going to include all six of the infographics below. But not to worry, you can get to all of them from here. So if you’re reading this via syndication, don’t feel like you’re missing out.

“The Importance of Shopping Small“, an infographic by American Express

This is the official infographic of the event. MarketingProfs did a great write-up on the boost small businesses will likely get, to go with their presentation of the graphic, including a fascinating set of statistics from survey findings. My favorite one was “81% say Small Business Saturday would be more effective if their communities came together and hosted events.”

As we’ve said in previous discussions about event marketing, bringing people together is a great way to market yourself, especially if you do it with finesse and subtlety.

 Aweber’s “What’s the Big Deal About Small Business?” Infographic

Great graphical way to raise awareness. You don’t want to send a note out that preaches to your customers about why they’re losers if they don’t shop at your store this Saturday.

Probably won’t go over.

But being a resource that educates them about the matter, with a low key mention that you’re a small owned business? Jackpot.

Bank of America’s Small Business Owner Report on Entrepreneur

Enough about us. How do WE feel about us? Bank of America’s graphical representation of a recent survey that details how important the local community is to small business. Did you know that your local customers may shield you from hard times?

“Sixty-three percent of respondents said most of their customers come from their local community, while 27 percent said the majority of customers come from outside their local community, but within the U.S. Just 3 percent said that most customers are from outside the U.S.”

Now that I think about it, the client that consistently spends the most money with me every month is a local branch of a business that operates nationally and internationally.

How about that.

eLocal’s “Why Buy Local?”

I first read about this at Sustainablog. I don’t want to spoil the suspense because this is a really good one. But suffice it to say that it would be better named “What not buying local is costing Americans.” Also: I love it when the links to the research are in the graphic.

Small Business’ Game Plan for Growth by Paychex

A simple one, but still sweet. It turns out that the surveyed small businesses intend to retain their staffing, and some even plan on hiring more people. There’s another aspect to growth  in the study that might interest you: technology.

Small Business Saturday Path to Online Marketing Success infographic from ReachLocal, on Mashable

Rare is the day I link to a Mashable article any more, since by the time I have read all the articles, most people have already seen them. But it’s so important for small business owners to see – for example, did you know 60% of small businesses still don’t have websites?

A website people. Not a blog.

I shudder to think where any of my businesses would be now if I’d never gone online. Obviously this one that helps people market online HAS to be online. But there’s no way I could still sustain my writing business as an offline-only endeavor, not if I wanted to be able to work by referral only and cherry pick my projects.

Happy thoughts though, because this is a happy place. Be sure you have a look at that infographic, and check the links at the end.

Additional Small Business Saturday resources

If your’e looking for late-breaking deals online or near you, have a look at the live stream of updates on the #SmallBizSat hashtag. And of course you can go to ShopSmall.com to find deals near you that were planned in advance.

If you own a small business, from now until December 14, you can apply to get free $100 in ad credit from Twitter. Nothing beats testing an advertising platform like free credits – if it blows you’ve lost nothing. If it rocks, you can use the revenue you generated from the free ad to roll back into a monthly budge.

Just please research what works and what doesn’t work on Twitter before you do so.

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