12/04/2023

How to Support Small Businesses This Holiday Season

Here are four great ways

You're scrambling to find last-minute gifts; you're picking up your aunt at the airport; the cousins are running around the house; the turkey is finally making it to the oven and the stockings are waiting to be hung by the chimney with care — sound familiar? While the holiday season is meant to be a celebratory time to reconnect with family and friends, more realistically, this time of year can quickly become stressful and spent ticking through an overwhelming list of to-dos.

No one better understands the stressors that can come with the holidays than small business owners. On top of their personal obligations, they face operational business struggles that can start to make the holidays feel less than festive. They often work longer hours to compensate for employees' holiday PTO, struggle to source inventory from strained suppliers and feel pressure from their big-box competitors to offer seasonal sales.

While we're all experiencing the chaos, I'd encourage you to go out of your way to support small businesses this holiday season. We know it's important to show love to local businesses in small ways all year round. Whether you skip the produce aisle at the grocery store to frequent a farmer's market instead, order takeout from your favorite spot down the road as a weekly routine or even just sign up for a business's newsletter to stay in the loop on happenings throughout the year, the busy times are when we should go above and beyond to show up for small businesses.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Entrepreneur.