News: Jason Kitcat on Small Business Saturday

I was delighted that the joint work between council and business groups for ‘Small Business Saturday’ got cross-party support.

Small Business Saturday is an initiative that began in America in 2010 as a way to raise awareness of the benefits of small businesses. Across the country promotions take place to encourage people to buy from and do business with small firms in their area – and importantly, it helps these businesses build up a support base of new regular customers.

The American scheme has been hugely successful, becoming one of the most popular shopping days of the year. It’s estimated that the US Small Business Saturday event in 2012 saw $5.5bn being spent with small businesses across the country.

This year sees the first year that the initiative is being adopted in the UK, and we signed up to participate in early September. Since then the council has been working with business groups in the city to develop a programme for the day and the run up to it.

There are number of things in the pipeline, including raising awareness of the new business discount we’re introducing for small businesses moving into long term empty properties. And we’re also running a number of focussed support sessions for small businesses as part of the ‘Ride the Wave’ programme helping businesses weather the recession. And we’re supporting business associations and traders groups with the events they have planned too. A full programme is being developed with business groups, and will be publicised in due course.

Money spent with small local businesses is money that is then reinvested in the local community and circulates in the local economy. So it’s important that we celebrate the value of buying local not just on Saturday 7 December but every day of the year.