<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/utility/FeedStylesheets/rss.xsl" media="screen"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"><channel><title>'Net Features : small business association</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/small+business+association/default.aspx</link><description>Tags: small business association</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><generator>CommunityServer 2008 SP2 (Build: 31104.93)</generator><item><title>Support Small Business Saturday</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2011/11/22/start-promoting-small-business-saturday.aspx</link><pubDate>Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:18124</guid><dc:creator>Allison Howen</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=18124</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2011/11/22/start-promoting-small-business-saturday.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;img style="float:left;margin:10px;" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/Starspanielbanner-mini.gif" height="75" width="75" alt="" /&gt;It is no secret that small businesses are imperative for our economy to thrive. In fact, &lt;a href="http://web.sba.gov/faqs/faqIndexAll.cfm?areaid=24" target="_blank"&gt;according to the Small Business Association&lt;/a&gt;, small businesses actually employ about half of U.S. workers, and represent about 99.7 percent of all employer firms.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Therefore, given our current economic climate, it is more important than ever for consumers to support these businesses that create so many jobs. Unfortunately, this is often not the case.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Instead, consumers tend to search for a good deal or do their shopping based on convenience, often ignoring their local &amp;ldquo;mom and pop&amp;rdquo; shops in the process.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is why small businesses across the country are asking consumers to &amp;ldquo;shop small&amp;rdquo; on &lt;a href="http://smallbusinesssaturday.com/" target="_blank"&gt;November 26th&lt;/a&gt; by taking some time to support their local retailers. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you operate a small business that hasn&amp;rsquo;t started promoting this day yet, &lt;a href="https://www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday?sk=app_214385065292578" target="_blank"&gt;here is how you should start&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://apps.facebook.com/sbsmerchant/Default.aspx?p=GetSignage&amp;amp;like=true" target="_blank"&gt;Get In-Store Signage,&amp;nbsp;E-marketing materials and $100 worth of free Facebook Ads&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday?sk=app_214385065292578" target="_blank"&gt;Share your offer ideas&lt;/a&gt; with other businesses or make couponless offers for American Express cardmembers&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Promote the day through social media, and include links to your e-commerce site&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Keep track of what people are saying through&amp;nbsp;the&lt;a href="https://www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday?sk=app_214385065292578" target="_blank"&gt;&amp;nbsp;free app - &amp;quot;YourBuzz&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Download the &lt;a href="http://sbsmerchant.bnservers.com/cdn/Assets/Checklist_R4.pdf" target="_blank"&gt;Small Business Saturday Checklist&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=18124" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/small+business/default.aspx">small business</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/small+business+association/default.aspx">small business association</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/small+business+saturday/default.aspx">small business saturday</category></item></channel></rss>