Small Business Saturday is an initiative put forth by American Express, encouraging consumers to support local businesses on the day after Thanksgiving, rather than spending your holiday savings with the bigger stores and high-volume vendors. Why is it important to support small business? The Small Business Administration identified that there are more than 28.2 million businesses operating in the United States as of March 2014, with about 63% of new jobs being created from small businesses between 1993 and mid-2013. Of these 28.2 million businesses, most are “self-employed” – making up about 3/4 of the U.S.’s total businesses. Meanwhile, approximately half of small businesses survive five years or more. (source) Those are pretty intimidating odds.

As a strategist, I have worked with many startups and small businesses to help them maximize their marketing efforts by tailoring strategies that help them reach the objectives that are going to really move the needle. Your website matters. Your copy matters. The way you present the tone of your brand across all of the channels you’re using: matters. Marketing makes all the difference. How are you reaching your customer? Are you connecting with them on an emotional level? What about your pricing… is it competitive? Are you charging enough? Are you using email marketing? What does your template look like? And what about social media? You might be Facebooking and Tweeting regularly, but are you actually engaging with your audience? How are you tracking the return on your marketing investment? And most importantly: are you driving sales?

We get it. We’re a small business too. Many startups can’t afford to hire a marketing agency or consultant and simply don’t know where to start or what to do. Well, we’re here to help! We would like to offer 10 hours of our services to one lucky small business or startup in support of the Small Business Saturday initiative.

Here’s how to enter!

Email us the following information:

• Your info: Business name, link to your website, links to any social media properties you’re using.
• Your business type: What do you do? What services do you offer?
• Your customer: Who is your customer? What do you know about your demographic?
• Your competition: Who do you consider to be your direct competition?
• Your goals: What are your objectives for 2017?
• Your challenges:  What have you struggled with, with regard to driving your business?
• Your history: What have you been doing with your marketing currently?
• Your budget: What is your marketing budget?
• You: Please tell us a little about yourself, your journey, and what inspired you to start your business.

The deadline for entry is 12PM, November 26th, 2016. We will contact the winner no later than Friday, December 2nd. We will donate, with no obligation, 10 hours of consulting time to help you get where you need to be. To best understand the variety of services we offer, please visit our Services page.

Best of luck!