With Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, the start to the holiday season can be quite hectic. However we don’t want you to miss celebrating these other fantastic events during the holiday season! From Small Business Saturday and GivingTuesday to Sydni Smiles’ Adopted Family Event and a Holiday Bazaar, there’s a lot of holiday events to enjoy!
Supporting Small Businesses on Small Business Saturday 2022!
When is Small Business Saturday?
Small Business Saturday is an annual event held on the Saturday, November 26th, after Thanksgiving and Black Friday. This day is held across the country to recognize and support cherished, local businesses. It also increases engagement between community members by creating unique places to shop and gather with friends.
How Small Businesses Make a Huge Impact From Your Support
An economic impact study conducted by American Express shows purchases at small businesses reinvests $0.68 of every dollar into the local economy. In addition, it’s estimated that over $2 billion can be generated for the small business economy across the US. This can be done easily if every shopper would simply spend $10 locally during Small Business Saturday.
Many small businesses are still recovering from the effects of the pandemic and loss of profits.The busiest part of small businesses sales occur on Small Business Saturday. For many, the ability to continue their business for the following year depends upon these sales and the rest of the holiday season. By shopping within your community during the holidays and throughout the year, you are playing an essential role in helping them thrive.
How to Support Small Businesses: 4 Simple Steps You Can Do for Small Business Saturday
- Start by mentioning the business to your family and friends. Word of mouth testimonies are incredibly powerful! A review from a trusted family member or friend holds more weight than an unknown person’s online review. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t leave reviews for others to read about!
- If you’ve found a fantastic local business, share your experience by leaving a review or sharing on social media with #shopsmall! Businesses, especially small businesses, are really dependent on great reviews. These are used to help the new customers decide whether or not they should support a business.
- Sign up for their email lists or get updates with their blog. Email lists aren’t just a way to produce spam and clutter your inbox. It’s a way to keep in touch with your local community and businesses. Not only is email marketing inexpensive for small businesses, it’s effective too! So use these emails to keep up to date on special sales. Furthermore, spread the word to help others get in on a great deal while supporting a local business.
- If ordering takeout, use their website or over the phone instead of using third party apps. Those apps can come in handy especially if the restaurant doesn’t have its own delivery service. However, they cut into the restaurant’s profit margin by a significant amount which negates some of the effect from your support/purchase.
Giving Tuesday 2022
When is Giving Tuesday?
GivingTuesday happens on the Tuesday, November 29th, following Cyber Monday. This event was created to celebrate generosity and encourage people to give back to their community. The purpose of this day is to really show how every act of kindness makes a difference towards establishing a better world.
Giving Tuesday History
GivingTuesday started back in 2012 with the simple motive to inspire countless acts of generosity. Now it has grown from a single day to give back to our communities to a global generosity movement! Through social conversations, outreach programs, and leadership connections, this movement continues to grow exponentially.
GivingTuesday organization creates and develops new resources and training to build leadership skills and encourage civic participation. By inspiring others to join in, we can develop a world that we wish to live in. As true and lasting human connection builds healthy communities and a strong civil society.
The organization is focused on a broader term of generosity rather than a specific area of focus. This allows schools, religious institutions, families, corporations, and small businesses to use the GivingTuesday concept in unique ways that apply to their situation. On top of that, those unique ways allowed experimentation throughout all aspects of the hosted events. The information gathered from the experiments is relayed back to the GivingTuesday organization’s nuclei network. By sharing their success and difficulties, other local organizations can use that information to boost their chances of success and further experimentation.
Ways To Support Your Community
The way the GivingTuesday mindset works is to rewire your thinking. Generosity is often thought of as a transactional process where the benefits the donor will receive is closely tied to the value of the donor’s gift. Which can hinder people from giving as they believe it doesn’t have enough value to be worthwhile.
Furthermore, if you view the community’s benefits of your efforts as a transaction, then it can lose its value and purpose. So instead, the idea is to embolden people to unleash their ability and potential within their communities. Everyone has a particular talent or resources that can be used to help enrich their community. There are several easy ways to get started such as:
- Contribute to the local food pantry
- Donate blood/plasma and save countless lives
- Volunteer your time or be a voice to lead the change in your community that you wish to see
- Simply socializing with people a neighbor, relative, seniors or veterans in the community helps people who feel forgotten or lonely
- Research organizations who share your same values / concerns and support those pushing for change
- Take to social media with #GivingTuesday to inspire others with what you’re doing or share upcoming events that others can be involved in
- Don’t just participate on GivingTuesday but find a way to continually create a world that you would like to see
An Adopted Christmas Family
A family’s finances can be put under a great deal of strain from hospital stays, treatments, medicine, and even regularly scheduled appointments as that typically means missed work hours.In addition, it can make their situation especially stressful during the holiday season. This is where churches, businesses, organizations or even regular community members can help other families in their time of need. From Christmas Tree Angels to Shoeboxes, there are several ways people can give back to their community and those in need during the holidays. So this year, Sydni Smiles decided to adopt a local family that has been affected by childhood cancer.
If you would like to help, the lists below will be one of the easiest ways to do that! The family is helping create their wishlists. E-Gift cards can also be purchased and sent to info@sydnismiles.org. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
Christmas Family Wishlists
- Mom : amazon.com/hz/wishlist/
- Dad : amazon.com/hz/wishlist/
- Boy (14 yr old) : amazon.com/hz/wishlist/
- Boy (13 yr old) : amazon.com/hz/wishlist/
- Baby girl : amazon.com/hz/wishlist/
#KidsGetCancerToo #MoreThan4 #AwarenessMatters #smilelikeSydni #GiftDrive #SydniStrongFOREVER
New Upcoming Event!
Come Visit with Us at the Seneca Holiday Craft Bazaar
Sydni Smiles, along with other vendors, will have a booth at the Seneca High School from 9a.m. to 3p.m. on December 3rd. Come help us make the 2nd annual Holiday Bazaar a great event while taking home perfectly unique and handcrafted items! We look forward to seeing you there! In addition to the booth, we have set up a facebook page to sell our handcrafted items as well.
Regardless of how you show your love and support, every single aspect makes a difference and a great impact. Your heartfelt support for local businesses, communities, and families is the best gift you can give. Thank you for showing your support not only on Small Business Saturday, and GivingTuesday but also throughout the whole year!!