Small Business Saturday!
What’s it about
Small Business Saturday 2021 falls on the 4th of December in the UK and is a campaign that celebrates customers discovering small businesses and shopping local instead of with national brands. This resonates perfectly with Henry Colbeck as the vast majority of our customers fit within this category. Now in its ninth year in the UK, the campaign has grown significantly each year with a record £1.1 billion spent with small businesses on Small Business Saturday in 2020, and 15.4 million people choosing to shop small.
You might have a fish and chip shop, a small restaurant, café, takeaway or a family business or small business of any kind, Small Business Saturday is supporting you! You can register your business here on the Small Business Finder Map for FREE to help new customers find your business!
Contribution
Largely most local councils enthusiastically support the campaign in order to make small business dinning and shopping more enticing to consumers. In fact, in recent years, the campaign gathered the support of the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London. It has also had the backing of some big corporates such as American Express and seen support from all major political parties throughout the UK.
When Saturday comes
More than a name… There’s a vast build-up across the UK during the period leading up to the day until the main event kicks off concluding with a whole day of offers dedicated to increasing recognition of the UK’s small businesses.
The campaign itself runs an Inspire Series throughout the whole year, which is a programme of free talks and workshops covering an entire range of subjects to motivate and encourage start-ups and small businesses. There’s also a nationwide Bus Tour which will look somewhat unusual this year. To adhere to social distancing guidelines, the bus will instead tour online. Operating over five weeks, the tour will platform hundreds of local businesses across their social media channels and will be offering free online mentoring sessions and workshops in association with BT.
Getting involved
Should your small business get involved? In the days in the lead up to Small Business Saturday, the team behind the campaign pick one small business to highlight each day. Those 100 small businesses not only gain publicity on the Small Business Saturday’s social channels and in the local press, in past years, they have also joined the team at a reception with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
If you have missed the window for 2021 then do not fret there will always be next year and the year after and year after… Even if your small business isn’t 1 of the 100 highlighted fear not, because taking part alone in Small Business Saturday gives you an opening to promote your business and it also benefits from the growing number of customers that are actively looking to back the local independent business scene.
