Saturday the 3rd of December marked the 10th Small Business Saturday, a campaign to celebrate and raise awareness of local small businesses while encouraging people to support them and allow them to continue to thrive in the UK. The campaign’s website, smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com, allows small businesses to register on the site, and customers to search for small businesses near them. In the days leading up to small business Saturday, 100 small businesses were highlighted by the campaign, celebrating, and highlighting each one.
Small businesses are hugely important to the British economy and help form its backbone. The 800,000 small businesses, which have been established since 2020, are more innovative and digitally active than the average business and could potentially add £20 billion to the economy should they be able to grow. The conditions of this year’s Small Business Saturday have been exceptionally tough, and leave such businesses in a more precarious position than ever. With the global cost-of-living crisis and higher energy bill costs impacting the finances of everyone in the country, one in four small businesses say that the increased financial strain of this year has impacted their well-being. This has severely hampered small businesses, many of which were just beginning to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic limited sales and forced many of these businesses to put their work entirely on hold.
Small businesses owned by ethnic minority groups are of equal importance to the economy, contributing 25 billion across the UK in 2018. The FSB also reported that ethnic minority-owned small businesses were more likely to be innovative in nature, with 30% engaging in product or service innovation in 2018. Ethnic minority-owned small businesses also punch above their weight in Scotland, with the 4.3% of non-white-owned businesses comparable to the share in England, despite having a significantly smaller non-white population. All of these businesses help create a sense of identity in local communities, helping create an image of a locality that can attract visitors who support more than just that business. They also create local jobs and contribute to 60 percent of the private sector workforce. They are, therefore, vital parts of local economies and help create a sense of pride in towns, villages or neighbourhoods.
Many members of the Scottish Conservatives have displayed their support for small businesses on this day. Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglass Ross, said:
‘Let’s support our high streets this Small Business Saturday, and help small businesses across Scotland thrive’.
West Scotland MSP Pam Gosal tweeted in support of small businesses, saying:
‘Small businesses are the backbone of our communities. But we know they are facing tough times. Let’s all get out there and help our communities to thrive by shopping locally, not just on this year’s Small Business Saturday, but all year round too!’
Small businesses can help make communities unique, creating a sense of local pride for members of the community, and also attracting visitors. However, they are threatened by the cost-of-living crisis, as well as the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. This Christmas, supporting a small business can help ensure they and the community they are in can continue to thrive in the future.