According to the 2015 Cox Business Sentiment Survey, 63% of all consumers shopped small businesses at least three times a week. How powerful is that? Almost 2/3 of the consumers out there shopping spend money several times a week with a small business.

71% of consumers attribute shopping with small businesses because they CHOOSE to support local businesses. What a concept—shop small! Think about this for a minute—7 of 10 people consciously want to support their local communities and merchants.

53% of consumers said small businesses can increase customer service by offering more competitive pricing. This is an interesting statistic. Yes, everyone wants to pay less for items and services. However, small businesses do not have the buying power that the big companies do and thus cannot get the discounts afforded the big guys. As a result you will in many cases pay more. However, if you really think about the difference between your local retailer and local service company in relation to the big guys—if the price difference is minimal, do you think the “big guy” is passing along that savings to you? Plus, think about the transportation costs if you travel a distance to get that discount. Most likely your shopping experience will be “real” in a small business as opposed to you being treated as a number by a big business.

46% of the consumers surveyed want loyalty programs. This makes perfect sense and can be a major marketing tool for small businesses to utilize. Many do not offer loyalty programs because they do not focus on the return on investment related to retention of customers and in many cases feel it is too much trouble to administer. If you are a small business, you definitely should look into offering a loyalty program.

55% of all jobs are in small businesses. 66% of all new jobs are in small businesses. 54% of sales in the US come from small business. This bears repeating—more than 1/2 of the jobs and sales come from small businesses.

There has been a 49% growth in Small Businesses since 1982. I wonder how much the government has grown during that same time frame.

Here is the big one—since 1990 big business has eliminated 4 million jobs in the US, yet small businesses have added 8 million jobs. Jobs have been one of the biggest economic challenges as long as I can remember and here we have facts that cry for support of local business!

Consumer affairs, politicians, the middle class, and many, many others are constantly singing the praises of small businesses and speaking to the importance of small business. And yet much, too much, legislation is passed, implemented, and imposed on small businesses that inhibit their abilities to grow and prosper. How many small businesses have had to eliminate jobs and reduce hours, full time employees due to government intervention and requirements? How many small businesses have had to adjust or eliminate their benefits to their employees to be able to handle the tax burden put upon them by the various government entities?

What would happen if the government just got out of the way and let small businesses produce, grow, and prosper? SHOP SMALL!