Find out more about the original Small Business Saturday mission, how you can participate, and some important announcements about our mission below, as well as the Small Business Saturday 2018 Recap by our team here at Momentum Digital in the video above!

How did Small Business Saturday Get Started?

The Small Business Saturday mission was founded by American Express. Small Business Saturday is a movement that is meant to promote shopping at local small businesses in your area instead of chain corporations or shopping malls. This annual holiday takes place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and asks that all shoppers show love to their favorite small businesses by stopping in to do their holiday shopping.

However, our Small Business Saturday takes place all year around. Every time you decide to grab a coffee from a corner coffee store instead of a Starbucks or buy a dress from a local boutique instead of  Forever 21, you are supporting the Small Business Saturday cause.

How was Small Business Saturday created?

The idea originated in 2010. During this time, small businesses across the country were feeling the hurt of the economic recession. In an effort to help small businesses, American Express launched the Small Business Saturday campaign. They encourage everyone to dedicate the Saturday after Thanksgiving to “shopping small” in hopes that an influx of spending at local businesses will help them stay on their feet.

In 2011, the Small Business Saturday initiative takes off. The initiative is adapted nationwide, even gaining the support of many local government officials. The movement grew so quickly that the Senate unanimously passes a resolution in support of the day and officials in all 50 states vow to participate.  

Also in 2011, the Small Business Saturday Coalition is founded. The Coalition is a group of corporation and non-profits, government officials, and more that decide to come together in support of the Small Business Saturday cause.

By 2013, 1,400 individuals and organizations become Small Business Saturday Neighborhood Champions. This group is responsible for spreading the word about the Small Business Saturday cause in their local neighborhoods and creating community events and activities around the holiday.

Since 2013, the Small Business Saturday initiative has grown more and more each year. As of the 2017 Small Business Saturday, there are 7,200 Neighborhood Champions and over 100 major corporations apart of the Small Business Saturday Coalition. Spending at small and local businesses on Small Business Saturday has increased holiday spending at small businesses to $85 Billion in total.

How can you participate in Small Business Saturday?

As a consumer, you can do your part by shopping small, and not just this Saturday, but every time you shop. American Express offers a Small Business locator on their website so that you can locate local small business near you to visit. You can also spread the word by organizing a community event, sharing your support on social media, and informing your favorite small businesses about the cause so that they can get involved!

As a small business owner, American Express wants you and your business to get involved in the Small Business Saturday cause. American Express has free Small Business Saturday swag available – such as event checklists, flyers, stickers and more – for all small businesses.

How does Momentum Digital help Small Business Saturday?

At Momentum Digital, we want to honor local small businesses year round. We believe in the American Dream and that small businesses are the backbone of our country’s economy. As an agency, we help to uplift and promote small businesses in any way we can.

As a small business ourselves, we know that most of these businesses don’t have the means, knowledge, or funds to keep their business competitive in the digital era. Digital marketing is one of the biggest assets to a small business. However, not every small business owner knows how to pull it off correctly. To help this, we dedicate time out of our work week to help promote unique local businesses in Philadelphia.

We do this through creating, filming and editing a completely free professional and promotional video about the small business. During this process, we allow the business owner to talk about whatever they want and promote their business in any way they see fit. We do this week in and week out, asking nothing in return. Some of the various marketing we provide the business includes the following:

• Create social media postings and stories to release on our social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – for a full week.
• Craft and distribute an email marketing campaign about the business that we send out to out email mailing lists
• Create a short blog post on the business that we post on our company website.
• Promote via word of mouth and connections with other business owners and entrepreneurs.

Previously, we did this every – single – week. However, this has been such a large burden on our team, our resources, and our overall bandwidth. It takes a combined 20-30 hours every week for our team to complete these videos: from planning, scheduling, traveling, staging, filming, editing, producing, posting, and marketing. That’s a lot of time!

Don’t get us wrong — We LOVE doing the SBS videos. However, we are doing this completely free of charge. So we cannot justify the time, research, and effort that it takes to continue to produce these videos weekly, as much as we would like to continue the video series. Soooo, starting after the official Small Business Saturday on November 24, we are changing it up…. Keep reading below to find out how, and to see if you can earn a spotlight or help join the mission of empowering Small Businesses here locally in Philadelphia.

Momentum’s new Small Business Saturday Game Plan!

Have you ever listened to a podcast? If not, you’re in for a treat.

You guessed it … moving forward starting in December, Momentum will be launching our very own podcast, to complement the Small Business Saturday series.

So, here’s how it’s going to work ….

The Momentum SBS Video series is going to move to once per month. Yes, instead of monthly, the videos are going to be weekly. These videos are going to be considered exclusive, as we will only be producing one per month, meaning only 12 per year. Therefore, we will be extremely selective as to who gets approved for an SBS video with Momentum. They will have to fit some key criteria and it will also be mandatory for them to showcase their involvement and enthusiasm.

Business Criteria

• Must be local to Philadelphia
• Must be classified as a small business
• Must have a unique story, mission, or culture
• Must truly show their interest and excitement in working and helping the mission
• Must be a business that’s visually and socially appealing (ie. no lawyers, bankers, accountants, etc — sorry, we love you all too)
  • Evaluated on a quality score by our team

Surprisingly, not every business we worked with to provide this free video was overly enthusiastic about what we were providing ?. Most were grateful, but some, not so much. This is disheartening to our team and the mission, as we only want the best for each other. It’s so difficult running and growing a small business that we must all work together and support each other, yet some didn’t share the video.

Nonetheless, we know and understand how busy these business owners must be. Even taking an hour out of their busy day can be a burden to some. Regardless, we truly appreciate working with those who understood the mission and support that comes from our team, so we thank all of you who helped grow SBS.

Instead of the weekly video series, the SBS show will become a weekly podcast series and a monthly video series. The podcast will be a new amazing way to highlight small local businesses without being too invasive or taking up much time from our business or theirs.

We’ll be interviewing various owners throughout the city asking to hear about their story and how they got started. The podcasts will be more conversational asking about what makes them unique, how they grew, what difficulties they’ve faced, how they market themselves and more.

Part of the podcasts will also include Q&A from both sides, where they get to ask us questions about digital marketing and how they can continue to grow their digital presence. Our founder, Mac Frederick, will still be hosting the podcast and videos. This will give us a chance to become thought leaders in the space while providing truly unique and unadulterated feedback about their digital identity, online brand, and what they can do to improve.

To recap ….

• Momentum has produced videos every week for over a year highlighting small businesses in Philadelphia completely for free.
• We are moving the video series to a higher quality monthly feature
• We are launching a new PODCAST weekly, interviewing small business owners
• Small businesses can apply online to get involved

Thanks to everyone who has been a part of this amazing cause. It’s literally been so much fun getting to know all these different business stories from the most genuine business owners in the city. AND IT WON’T STOP HERE. This is just the beginning!

Please share these stories and pass along our mission here at Momentum Digital for Small Business Saturday!

To Feature Your Business, you can send us an email or DM us on Facebook or Instagram!