Rowan-Cabarrus Community College

KANNAPOLIS— With the Holiday Shopping Season around the corner, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, in conjunction with the North Carolina Community College Small Business Center Network encourages people to shop small by supporting local small businesses.

Nestled between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday has quickly become a nationally recognized day to support local independent merchants.

“We encourage everyone to set aside a portion of their shopping dollars to support local small businesses this holiday season, because our community will see greater economic health overall when our small businesses thrive,” said Barbara Hall, director of the Small Business Center at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.

Small Business Saturday was founded by American Express in 2010 as a day to celebrate local businesses through the launch of the holiday shopping season. The day has since grown into a powerful movement in support of local small businesses that make communities unique.

Sixty million workers in the United States are employed by small business, accounting for approximately, half of the private sector workforce. The Small Business Administration reports that small businesses were also the driving force for 63 percent of new net private-sector jobs created between 1993 and mid-2013.  Furthermore, in the state of North Carolina 47 percent of the workforce is employed in a small-business setting.