RALEIGH — With the holiday shopping season upon us, the North Carolina Community College Small Business Center Network encourages you to #ShopSmallForAll and support your local Small Businesses.

Nestled between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday® has quickly become a nationally recognized day to support your local independent merchants with the power of your dollar.

“In Bladen County, small businesses and entrepreneurs, people who work out of their homes, are the lifeblood of the community,” said Todd Lyden, Bladen Community College Small Business Center Director. “We never take for granted in a rural area that the money spent with locally owned business is money directly staying in the community.”

Small Business Saturday® was founded by American Express in 2010 as a day to celebrate local businesses through the launch of the holiday shopping season. The day has since grown into a powerful movement in support of local small businesses that make our community unique.

Consumer spending with independent retailers and restaurants during the 2014 Small Business Saturday® neared $14.3 billion according to the results of a survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB); with a total of 88 million consumers shopping “small” on the day, up 14.9% from 2013.

SBC Director Todd Lyden remarks, “we’ve all seen the statistics that nearly half of money spent with locally owned retailers will stay in the local community, while not even 20 percent of money spent with national chain retailers stays local.”

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that over 50 percent of the working population works in a small business. A small business is defined by the Small Business Administration as one with 500 or less employees. Small businesses have generated over 65 percent of new jobs since 1995.

Small Business Saturday® is our opportunity to support the local small businesses that provide economic vitality and quality of life to our community. The SBCN encourages you to use the power of your dollar to #ShopSmallForAll on November 28 and help make a lasting impact in the place you call home.

The mission of the NC Community Colleges Small Business Center Network (SBCN) is to increase the success rate and number of viable small businesses in North Carolina by providing high quality, readily accessible assistance to prospective and existing small business owners, which will lead to job creation and retention. The SBCN assists in starting an average of more than 700 businesses each year. Small Business Centers have an economic impact in 90% of all NC Counties each year including helping to create and retain over 3,600 jobs annually.

For information about the Bladen Community College Small Business Center, contact Director Todd Lyden at 910-879-5572.