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| SBA Administrator Karen Mills, with Yuri Cunza, David Tiller, and Genma Holmes |
According to the Small Businesses Administration:
• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
• Employ half of all private sector employees.
• Pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
• Generated 65 percent of net new jobs over the past 17 years.
• Create more than half of the nonfarm private GDP.
• Hire 43 percent of high tech workers ( scientists, engineers, computer programmers, and others).
• Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises.
• Made up 97.5 percent of all identified exporters and produced 31 percent of export value in FY 2008.
• Produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms.
Saturday, November 24, 2012 is officially Small Business Sunday. For the third year, millions of Americans are being encouraged to shop small by purchasing goods and services from small business owners.
Small Business Saturday is an American shopping holiday held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. First celebrated on November 27, 2010, it is a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which feature big box retail and e-commerce stores respectively. By contrast, Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick and mortar businesses that are small and local.
In 2010 the holiday was conceived and promoted by American Express via a nationwide radio and television advertising campaign. That year Amex bought advertising inventory on Facebook, which it in turn gave to its small merchant account holders, and also gave rebates to new customers to promote the event.
American Express publicized the initiative using social media, advertising, and public relations. At least 41 local politicians and many small business groups in the United States issued proclamations concerning the campaign, which generated more than one million Facebook "like" registrations and nearly 30,000 tweets under the Twitter hashtags #smallbusinesssaturday (which had existed since early 2010) and #smallbizsaturday.
I believe that small business owners must lead the charge by promoting and spending with each other first. To celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship, Living Your Best Life will announce the business owners that leave their company info in the comment section beginning Saturday November 24, 2012 through December 31, 2012 on air to encourage their listeners to spend with small business during the holiday season. It is my way of showing my appreciation for the small business community and helps jump start my "Year of Living and Giving".
Happy Shopping !
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