Almost \u00a31 billion is expected to have been spent with small firms last week on Small Business Saturday.<\/p>\n
The national shopping event, led by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), urges consumers to support small firms by buying locally.<\/p>\n
Saturday 07 December marked the seventh annual #SmallBizSatUK, with organisers hoping to build on the success of last year\u2019s event when more than \u00a3800 million was spent with small businesses.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the figures, FSB National Chairman Mike Cherry said small firms need the help more than ever against a backdrop of rising costs and crippling taxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re calling on all shoppers to forget Black Friday and get behind this unique celebration of independent businesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you back a small business in your local community, you\u2019re much more likely to see your money re-spent nearby than if you handed it over to a big corporation \u2013
\nthrough local job creation, purchases from other businesses and investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Small Business Saturday Founder Michelle Ovens\u00a0added: \u201cSmall Business Saturday celebrates the huge contribution that small businesses play. Yet again, this year\u2019s event will be an opportunity for communities to show their support for these businesses across the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the latest figures, there are now close to 5.8 million small and micro businesses operating across the UK, contributing some \u00a32 trillion to the economy each year and employing around 60 per cent of Britain\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n
Despite entrepreneurial spirit running through the nation, however, high streets and local shops are still struggling to make ends meet, with more than half (58 per cent) of business owners expecting performance to worsen over the coming three months.<\/p>\n
Evidence also shows that a huge number of retailers are not able to keep on top of spiralling business rates, with statistics showing that retail unit vacancy rates have risen to 10.3 per cent \u2013 the highest level in almost five years.<\/p>\n
Do you need small business advice? Get in touch with our expert team for support today.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Almost \u00a31 billion is expected to have been spent with small firms last week on Small Business Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30,25,4,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3378,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions\/3378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}