Happy Black Friday!  I commend all you courageous Black Friday shoppers for braving the shopping frenzy that’s currently happening.  But have you heard of Small Business Saturday? It happens tomorrow so listen up!

Small Business Saturday is a campaign run by American Express to encourage shoppers to buy at small businesses the day after Black Friday.  Many small businesses get ignored during Black Friday in favor of big box retail stores who are able to give huge discounts on their merchandise.  Small Business Saturday gives small businesses a chance to cash in on the shopping frenzy that occurs during this weekend.

Why so much attention on small businesses?  Small businesses often win when it comes to flexing their marketing and creativity muscles to compete with big box retailers.  Here in Austin, the “Keep Austin Weird” campaign was specifically designed to encourage Austinites to shop local.  Small businesses also bring in a higher ratio of money into the community compared to big box retailers.  So shopping at a small business helps your local community.  The government also sees the benefit of small businesses by focusing many of its contracts specifically on small businesses.

Small Business Saturday is nicely nestled between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which is the Monday after Thanksgiving.  Let’s face it: holiday shopping is huge, and B2C businesses are all trying to get a piece of the pie, whether they are a big box company, a small business, or an online retailer.

Where will you be spending your dollars this Thanksgiving weekend?