Will this Small Business Saturday top last year’s record awareness, participation?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Minda McGonagle, State Director, [email protected]
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, [email protected]
SANTA FE, N.M., Nov. 24, 2017—Will tomorrow’s march on Main Street be bigger than last year’s? The representative association for New Mexico’s small-business owners is hoping so.
In proclaiming tomorrow Small Business Day in New Mexico, Gov. Susana Martinez outlined what makes small business the true engine of the nation’s economy. “There are currently 23 million small businesses in the United States and they represent more than 99 percent of American employers, create more than two-thirds of new jobs, and generate 46 percent of private gross domestic product … Small businesses employ more than 55 percent of the workforce in the United States.”
Added Lt. Gov. John Sanchez in an email to NFIB, “New Mexico’s small businesses continue to reflect the heart and soul of our great State. As a former small business owner, I encourage all New Mexicans to support local businesses during the holidays and year-round. I would also like to thank the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) for their continued advocacy for small businesses.”
With 350,000 dues-paying members nationwide, including 1,300 in New Mexico, NFIB is the nation’s largest and leading small-business association. Said Minda McGonagle, NFIB’s New Mexico state director, “I’m calling on all New Mexicans to get out from behind their computers, tomorrow, suspend their online shopping, bypass the malls, and put some shoe leather on Main Street and some dollars in the cash registers of the small shops located there. Look, folks, these are the enterprises that gave most of us our first jobs, the ones willing to take a chance on — or keep — an employee whom a big corporation would never consider giving an opportunity to, the enterprises that were the bedrocks during the Great Recession while big businesses produced record layoffs. The money invested in small businesses pays the highest societal dividends: Vibrant communities and jobs for your families and neighbors.”
Started in 2010 by American Express as a spur out of the recession, this will be the 8th Small Business Saturday, and while awareness of the special day has beat each previous year’s percentage, total spending at Main Street shops dipped to $15.4 billion in 2016, down from the record $16.2 billion set in 2015.
A survey by NFIB, a co-sponsor of Small Business Saturday, and American Express on prior years’ participation can be read here and expected participation for tomorrow read here.
You can follow NFIB on Twitter, NFIB_NM, or on its webpage, www.nfib.com/new-mexico, where this news release has been posted.
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Celebrating its 75th year in 2018, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the Voice of Small Business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America’s economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. NFIB’s educational mission is to remind policymakers that small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses; they have very different challenges and priorities.
National Federation of Independent Business/New Mexico
505-228-3755
www.nfib.com/new-mexico
Twitter: NFIB_NM
