Entrepreneurs look to cash in on Small Business Saturday

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – Small Business Saturday, the most wonderful time of year for entrepreneurs, is expected to generate $17 billion dollars in revenue according to Business Wire.

“It’s important in terms of our revenue and our annual gross sales, but it’s even more important because we’re small potatoes compared to like the big mall stores,” Rochel Roland, owner of Joyful Bath Company said. “We call the holiday season our Olympics because it really does take a lot of training in terms of product making and all the handwork, we do to get stuff done.”

She is one of dozens of small businesses at the holiday market in downtown Washington DC. Michael Paul sells prints inspired by pop culture and travel, not too far from Roland’s booth.

“It’s a lot of long hours, a lot of sleepless nights just kind of getting ready for everything,” Paul said. “We love any support we can get this time of year.”

The Small Business Administration said the health of small businesses is an important indicator for how the economy is doing overall.

“When you think about where the economy is going, over 5 years or over 10 years the way to sort of see into the future is to look at what’s happening with our small businesses and making sure we’re actually supporting those folks,” Jon Donenberg, a White House spokesperson said.

Black Friday and Small business Saturday help kick off the holiday shopping season, which Rochel and Michael said are crucial for their livelihood.

“This probably represents half of my annual salary, so yeah it’s gigantic,” Paul said.

“The holiday season is about 40 percent of our annual revenue” Roland said.

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