Occupy Small Business This Saturday

Black Friday has come and gone, and all eyes are on the big retailers like Target, Walmart and Best Buy, but there's a new movement on the rise. It's called Small Business Saturday and it was created, by all companies, American Express. They don't exactly scream "small business", but we think it's great that a big company like American Express is working to bring awareness to just how much small businesses do for our local economy.

Here's how Small Business Saturday works: On Saturday, shop at a local "Mom and Pop" type business and purchase as many holiday gifts as you can at those businesses. By spending your money at locally owned businesses, that money is kept in the community and could have a bigger impact on the economy than any government bailout for any bank or big business.

According to American Express, small business provide half of the jobs in the country and in the last 17 years, almost two thirds of the new jobs came from small business. Based on their survey, American Express says 89 million people plan on shopping at a small business for at least some of their holiday spending.

Another way you can impact small business and trim your budget at the same time is to use MIX 94.9's Value Connection. It's a service of MIX 94.9 that lets you buy 'certificates' of a certain value to use at 1000's of Central MN businesses. The best part is, you don't pay full price for the certificates. For example right now you can purchase a $50 Fitzharris Ski & Snowboard shop certificate for only $38!

We support Small Business Saturday, because with out small business, MIX 94.9 WOULD NOT EXIST. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of our small business advertisers.