Entrepreneurs prepare for Small Business Saturday

November 27, 2024 1

MILFORD — With the holidays around the corner, entrepreneurs across the state are preparing for Small Business Saturday in hopes of seeing an influx of holiday shoppers.

Delaware’s Division of Small Business and its partners recently visited several of those businesses to celebrate the holiday and encourage momentum for the day.

“On Black Friday, you know, everybody is out buying and kicking off the buying frenzy for Christmas,” U.S. Small Business Administration District Director for Delaware Michelle Harris said while the group visited with Zack King, co-owner of EasySpeak Spirits and Fondue in Milford. “We just want to make sure the public knows about our small businesses.”

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She thanked King for not only opening their small eateries, but for also working to make a home for other entrepreneurs as they continue their business journeys. Since opening EasySpeak before COVID struck, King and his wife Marissa have rehabilitated several older buildings in the downtown Milford and nearby areas which are now rented out to 10-20 small businesses as well as some short-term and long-term residences, he said.

“A lot of our tenants, the retail stores, some of the ones that don’t have a premier corner location or don’t have a lot of money for marketing budgets. . . they’re the ones that need the outreach and the new stories. But the retail and some of the smaller businesses, some of these guys put everything, every penny and every second of their lives into their little businesses to try to get up off the ground and grow and, you know, it’s a world of difference for you guys to help and support and any outreach we can get is awesome,” King said before the group traveled around to some of their tenants located at Penny Square just feet away from Fondue.

Many of the King’s tenants in Milford are about to benefit from some of that exposure through their first Small Business Saturday, an experience The Crafty Reader owner Kori Lewandowski is looking forward to this year after opening just a few months ago.

While she is embracing the more traditional concept of Black Friday and rebranding it for her shop as Book Friday, she said the bulk of deals found in her corner of Penny Square will be made available on Small Business Saturday.

“I really didn’t want to put an emphasis on that [Black Friday],” she said, adding that she will, however, have a gift card raffle available on Book Friday featuring businesses from inside Penny Square. “I want to continue to support my fellow businesses in here and then I have some extra special deals on Saturday to make it more focused on small businesses.”

Marc Clery, owner of neighboring business Shock Vinyl, has been in business for 19 months and said he hopes his second Small Business Saturday this year is just as exciting as last year.

“It was really good last year, both Small Business Saturday and Black Friday, and Milford also does the Holiday Stroll which was really good, too,” Clery said. “I’m looking forward to it. I have records coming out of my ears. . . I’m ready.”

Small Business Saturday was founded by American Express in 2010 to support small businesses between Black Friday and Cyber Monday and always takes place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The United States Small Business Administration became a cosponsor in 2011. According to the National Retail Federation, 51 million shoppers participated in Small Business Saturday nationwide in 2021.