4 Ways Micro-Businesses Can Get Ready for Small Business Saturday

Micro-businesses represent a huge portion of the small business community; about 24 million strong. What you might consider “small businesses” are in reality “micro-businesses,” or businesses with fewer than ten employees and less than $1 million in sales. These businesses make up the foundation of many communities: retail storefronts, dry cleaners, flower shops, restaurants, accountants, doctor’s offices and more. Their contribution to local economies across the country is huge and that’s why all of us should support Small Business Saturday on November 29.

Small Business Saturday seems to have caught on with consumers spending more than $5.7 billion on Small Business Saturday last year, for a micro-business the rest of the year can be survival of the fittest. So here are four areas where micro-businesses can improve their processes and operations to be ready for Small Business Saturday and in general run more efficiently:

Marketing – Easy website hosting platforms combined with free social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, make it easier for than ever for micro-businesses to reach, connect and market themselves to audiences online and offline. Many of these sites allow you to pre-schedule posts, so you can schedule Small Business Saturday posts in advance to create awareness and excitement around the day.

Payments – Mobile point-of-sale solutions make it easy than ever for businesses to provide their customers with the convenience and safety of secure transactions. Business owners can easily set these up within minutes and test them out beforehand, so they are ready to go before Small Business Saturday.

Communication – Social media and email marketing make it easy to share news and events with customers updating them on new items, sales, discount codes and special events like Small Business Saturday. Even the telephone, the lifeline for any small business, has been improved upon with voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology. VoIP business phone systems allow micro-businesses to utilize their high-speed Internet for more affordable phone service with powerful features to help micro-businesses work more efficiently and present a more professional image.

Productivity – By utilizing document storing and sharing cloud services, business owners can keep track of important information like contracts, shift schedules and vendor details. These services provide apps to keep everything together and synced across all devices.

Are you a micro-business owner? Are you participating in Small Business Saturday? What other tips would you recommend?

*Note from the author:

As an official Small Business Saturday partner and a supporter of micro-businesses 365 days a year, we look forward to joining our neighbors and supporting local small businesses in our communities. We hope that you will join us for Small Business Saturday on November 29.