Unlike its title, Small Business Saturday is a rather large event, encouraging customers to shop with independent, local businesses, pushing the biggest small business sales day of the year!
Taking place on the 24th November 2018 the grass-roots non-commercial campaign will be promoting 100 small businesses and highlighting their achievements, one a day for 100 days, culminating on the most significant small business sales day, the 24th.
With over £748 million spent on the day, a number of big business names and brands now support the campaign, such as fashion designer Alexa Chung, actress Billie Piper and the Mayor of London.
Plus, with a staggering 115,000 tweets (with the hashtag #SmallbizSatUK) sent on the day itself, this is an ideal opportunity for small businesses to reach more than 115 million people!
What’s in it for you?
The million-dollar question.
For fashion professionals looking to start out in the industry or for those already running a small business in the fashion world, Small Business Saturday can provide a great marketing and communications platform, helping to raise brand presence, connect with like-minded companies and individuals, and have your questions answered through a series of professionally run and hosted workshops.
There’s also the opportunity to:
- Apply to Small Business Saturday to be one of the 100 businesses promoted in the 100 days campaign.
- Add your business to the `small business finder, ` boosting your name, your brand, and overall recognition of your business.
- Attend a range of networking events held throughout the year in different cities in the UK all available to help support and promote your business.
- Gain support from big corporates, such as American Express – providing opportunities to learn from others, gain business insights, and have your questions answered.
- Take part in free talks and workshops which take place all over the UK, covering a range of topics, providing an ideal setting to touch up on your knowledge and learn new skills as you go.
If you choose to register with Small Business Saturday, you’re also free to download marketing packs, logos, social media information and more.
This is a great marketing tool for fashion professionals to tap into. As the focus is on promoting why consumers should be shopping with small, independent businesses, making it the ideal opportunity for you to maximise your exposure, connect with other social media partners, use hashtags galore, and follow as well as be part of what is trending online.
To make sure you expand on all opportunities, you could also look to run your own marketing campaigns in conjunction with the backing of Small Business Saturday.
For example, hosting a specific event when the campaign reaches your city, offer discounts for that one day only, or one-off collection pieces that will be available to purchase only on the 24th, etc. – the possibilities could be endless once our imaginations start running wild!
Making the most of the support
It can be easy to feel alone and often isolated as a small business, especially with BIG occasions such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday where we can often find ourselves lost within a larger crowd. Events such as Small Business Saturday offer businesses and consumers a different opportunity, another perspective.
For fashion professionals and all small businesses, the important points to take away are to firstly, know about these events and secondly, to get involved! Coming together with like-minded individuals and using the exposure to your benefit – focus on creating a lasting impact.
“Small Businesses make a Big Difference.”
For support from Fashion Rider please click onto our business reports:
If you’d like to find out more about how Fashion Rider can support you, email us at contact@www.doenhoff.co.uk, we’d love to hear from you!
