Hi everyone! You might be wondering what to buy your loved ones for Christmas. Small Business Saturday could be the perfect opportunity to take advantage of sales AND… getting one’s Christmas shopping started and hopefully finished.

Sure, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming up but there’s several good reasons why shopping locally helps your community. Shopping at local businesses keeps your hard-earned money in your city. This is the perfect chance to help your community thrive. Most local businesses offer expert advice and exceptional customer service you can’t find anywhere else. The best part of shopping locally is that you may find rare and unique items you can only purchase in your city. Check out this cool story I found on Forbes here.      

Georgia McIntyre from Fundera, a company that helps small businesses receive funding for success wrote a piece that talks about how small businesses contribute to 55 percent of all jobs nationwide. Small businesses receive 54 percent of all sales in the U.S.

According to Fundera’s web site, Small Business Saturday began in 2010 by American Express. Small Business Saturday continues to get more support from the general public every year. In 2015, 83 percent of U.S. consumers said they were inspired to shop small on Small Business Saturday. They went out and did it.

El Paso has several local businesses I love and support. Today, I’m including a few of them here. Several of them even offer online shopping options. What types of local businesses do you support and why? Will you be participating in Small Business Saturday this Saturday, Nov. 26?

Dream Chasers Club

Downtown El Paso’s Dream Chasers Club offers unique art created by local artists, t-shirts, key chains, etc. DCC’s motto is “chase dreams not money.” Owner JAM! (Matthew Martinez) has been featured here in Life of an El Paso Woman. In case you missed it, you can check it out here.  

Lalo Elan

Lalo Elan offers reasonably-priced handmade jewelry like earrings, necklaces and bracelets. They’ll be offering a 15 percent discount on Friday. See, I told you there would be sales! Their jewelry can be purchased at their store and/or online. 

The Tea Spout

Not only does The Tea Spout offer great tasting tea but they also offer tea workshops and parties. The Tea Spout sells several of their teas online. I’m a big fan of their black tea options. A couple of my favorites are the citrus ginger peach and Earl Grey.

J&M SportsCards

J&M offers all kinds of gifts for the sports fan in your life. They sell NFL and MLB team jerseys,various sports cards and memorabilia. Check out their Facebook page for more info.