Tis the season! The holidays are upon us. Turkey, family, tradition. And, with that we also welcome those artificial holidays created to jump start shopping, spending and economic growth.

Small Business Saturday: How it Started

Retailers for years pinned the Friday after Thanksgiving as the first official day to begin Christmas shopping. Business hours were extended incrementally and special promotions brought holiday tunes to radio and television in the days or weeks leading up to it.  Today it’s not unusual at all for what we know now as Black Friday to include 24-hour overnight camping in front of mega stores for those hoping to score big time discount deals.

Given so many traditionally have had the Friday following Thanksgiving off, and as workers returning from the long weekend sat their desks shopping online sales, the Monday following earned the term Cyber Monday.

Both Black Friday and Cyber Monday promote big retailers and e-commerce, which is fine.  But what about the businesses in between?  Those too small to create traffic of epic proportion.  Those without million dollar marketing budgets.

American Express Kicks it Off

In 2010, American Express for the first time created and promoted Small Business Saturday. Ironically not created by a small business, the magnitude of popularity of Small Business Saturday could only have been accomplished by a multi bill corp. Today Small Business Saturday has earned major props and for a very good reason.

The SBA reports that a business have about a 78.9% chance of surviving one year in business and a 48.4% chance of surviving 5 years. That’s right, the longer a small business is established, the less likelihood it has for surviving.

And that’s because small business is hard. Entrepreneurship is hard.

And small business and entrepreneurship in an industry that’s in its infancy and rife with regulatory developments and misunderstandings is really, really, really hard.

Dispensaries & Small Businesses

As lovers of small business and promoters in our own right of entrepreneurs, particularly those in the legalized marijuana sector, we’re digging #smallbizsaturday in a really big way this year.

We’re hoping it brings patients and customers to their favorite dispensaries in support.  We’re here to remind you that dispensaries are small businesses too.

Dispensaries are small businesses. They face small business challenges. Dispensaries deserve to be included in the rallying cry of Small Business Saturday. We hope you agree and we’ll look out for your social media posts #dispensaries #smallbizsat of your trip this coming Saturday to your favorite dispensary.

Need help finding your local dispensary?  Let us help you get started. >>