This is the time of year for giving thanks, and I’m thankful for Mississippi’s small businesses, the locally owned establishments that do so much throughout the year to help their communities.
When it comes to holiday shopping, national chains tend to get most of the attention, but those stores and restaurants are owned by big corporations based somewhere else. Main Street businesses are owned by our friends and neighbors. They create jobs, give to local charities, and make our communities stronger.
We should show our gratitude by supporting these local merchants on Small Business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Mississippi’s small businesses are especially thankful this season that Congress made the 20 percent small business deduction permanent. The deduction has been a lifeline for Main Street, helping small business owners keep more of what they earn and reinvest in their employees, equipment, and growth. Making it permanent gives them the certainty they need to plan for the coming year.
Even with that good news, it remains a challenging time to own and operate a small business.
According to the NFIB Small Business Economic Trends Report, optimism among small business owners slipped a bit in October. Many of the same Main Street entrepreneurs who survived the pandemic are now facing new headwinds, from higher interest rates to slower sales and unpredictable costs.
Small businesses operate on notoriously thin profit margins. So far, they’re hanging in there, but without our support, some of them might not make it until next Thanksgiving, and we can’t afford to let that happen. Small businesses are the heart and soul of Mississippi’s economy. Over 99 percent of all businesses in the state are small businesses, and they employ nearly half of the state’s private-sector workforce.
Small Business Saturday is the perfect time to show our gratitude for everything these independent shops and restaurants do. It was created in 2010 as part of a marketing campaign to help small businesses recover from the Great Recession. Since then, it’s taken on a life of its own. Last year, Americans spent an estimated $22 billion on Small Business Saturday.
When we shop small and support local businesses, we’re helping the family businesses that support our schools, civic organizations, and communities. Shopping small also strengthens our local economies. While money spent at chain stores often goes to out-of-state corporations, about 67 cents of every dollar spent at a small business stays in the community. What’s more, every dollar spent at a small business creates an additional 50 cents in local business activity as employers and their employees shop at other local businesses.
That’s why I’m encouraging everyone to shop small on Saturday, Nov. 29. When we help small businesses, we help everyone.
Leah Long is the Mississippi state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.
