We’ve had every massive corporation trying to tempt us with bargains over the last few days, from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. Today small independent traders hit back with Small Business Saturday.
Nick Clegg has put out a message to mark the occasion. He said:
Forget Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This Small Business Saturday, we get to celebrate and show our support for Britain’s 5.2 million small and medium-sized businesses. Make sure you get involved.
Whether it’s a local manufacturer, builder, florist, jeweller or bookshop, all of these companies keep our local communities going: creating jobs, driving growth and ensuring our high streets survive and succeed.
Together, they are working to seal the deal on Britain’s recovery. In government, we are giving them all the help we can, with greater business support, access to finance and competitive taxes to help them thrive, and we now have hundreds of thousands more small and medium enterprises operating in the UK than in 2010.
Your custom matters to them more than ever. Last year, Small Business Saturday generated around £468 million. Together, we can top that. There are special events taking part all over the country – backed by cross party support and organisations like the Federation of Small Businesses, Young Enterprise, The Prince’s Trust and others.
So, good luck to all of the UK businesses throwing open their doors on Small Business Saturday and every success for the future.
On Saturday 6 December when you are shopping for Christmas or something you need – choose small, choose local.
I shall be doing some small meanderings amongst the small independent shops of Edinburgh, enjoying a wee mulled wine or two with visiting friends. I may find the time to tweet using #SmallBizSatUK.
But that’s not what’s really special about today for today. Happy Birthday, Dad.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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3 Comments
It surprised me to learn that Nick Clegg is your Dad, Caron. I didn’t know, but I suppose it explains some of your supporting articles. Anyway, forget the criticism for now, forget the polls and the pundits, you all have a nice birthday party this weekend! 🙂
Those who support small businesses will want to consider signing the petition to uphold the VAT exemption for micro businesses. Self employed businesses are only just discovering that their VAT exemption is being withdrawn from Jan 1st.
This will mean that UK digital product suppliers will have to establish and obtain proof of the country of tax residence of people to whom they sell in the EU and account for the appropriate VAT rate in that country. They are currently exempt.
Also the majority of those impacted have still not been contacted by the government to be told about the change of law. This is because they are small businesses and not easily identified by the government. At the very least there needs to be a deferral of the implementation until a proper consultation of the impact has been carried out.
See
https://www.change.org/p/vince-cable-mp-uphold-the-vat-exemption-threshold-for-businesses-supplying-digital-products
+1 David Evershed
No digital business owner will be thanking Nick after January, Lib Dem MPs (especially Vince) have categorically proven they don’t care about small business owners. It’s an 8% tax hike on us, with no warning – that’s bigger than the operating margin of some companies.
January, huge tax bill, February struggle to pay, March close business, April sign on…guess what they’ll be doing in May?! We’re considering relocating.