Celebrate Small Businesses – National Mom & Pop Business Owners Day

Running a small business has always been hard; running one now during the pandemic is exponentially more difficult.

As we all help to keep our local businesses prospering, we should be especially mindful of it today: National Mom & Pop Business Owners Day.

It was started by Rick and Margie Segel to honor the hard work of their parents, who opened a hat shop on March 29, 1939, and grew it into a million-dollar clothing store over the next 58 years. The power of local.

You should take extra care to celebrate and shop small businesses, because small businesses help your community. They help because they are your community. They provide local jobs and raise local taxes.

In fact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses account for 99.9% of US business and 47.1% of the private workforce. But that was before the pandemic.

While we don’t know the exact number of closed business yet due to the pandemic (a Yelp estimate was about 500 per day, while a University of California Santa Cruz study showed about 1,500 per day), it is too much.

But you can help in just 4 easy steps:

1. Shop Local

This is sort of obvious, but it’s where it all starts. To support your local mom & pop businesses, you first have to shop there. Get to know the owners. Become a regular. Enjoy the personalized service and feeling of community that you can only get from shopping local. But don’t keep these local businesses to yourself.

2. Help others shop local

Many local businesses, if they weren’t already, are now offering services online. Also, many sell gift vouchers (in one form or another). So, get some and send them to your friends and/or family. Introduce the people you care about to the local businesses you care about. But don’t think you have to spend money to spread the word.

3. Share your experiences

Get on all your social medias and praise your local businesses. Tag them. Post to their own pages. Let all your followers, friends, and connections know how great your local shops are. Share your experiences and encourage patronage. But don’t just share with the people you know.

4. Leave reviews

Leaving positive reviews and ratings on Google, Yelp, and any other applicable review sites can help local businesses expand their presence even more. 93% of US shoppers search online for local businesses, and 87% of those are reading online reviews. But don’t just use reviews to complain about bad service—use your review powers for good too.

Now get (safely) shopping, and make this National Mom & Pop Business Owners Day a day your favorite local businesses will celebrate.