November is a busy month for people who own their own companies. Not only are the holidays right around the corner (good news for businesses, holiday sales are projected to increase by 3.7 percent this year), but it’s also the month where small businesses are starting to feel some love.

As a tribute to the importance of entrepreneurs and small businesses in our nation, President Obama declared November 16th National Entrepreneurs’ Day. (Some are encouraging people to ‘hug an entrepreneur,’ but we’ll leave that up to you.)

November is also Global Entrepreneurship Week – now in its fifth year – which aims to inspire people to explore starting a business through local, national and global activities. The Story Exchange is participating with their 1,000 Stories Campaign, a project aimed at understanding the needs of women business owners by giving their stories media exposure. You can be part of this movement by sharing your startup experience here.

Another shout out to the importance of small businesses comes via American Express’ Small Business Saturday campaign. Falling on November 24th this year, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is benchmarked between two big shopping days – Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Now in its third year, Small Business Saturday is a day encouraging people to “shop small.” American Express is offering free resources for business owners to promote their businesses, such as personalized online ads and a marketing kit.

 

 

For those entrepreneurs looking to learn something new or sharpen their skillsets, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is offering two online business chats with experts this month.

The first is on ‘Holiday Marketing Tips and Ideas‘ on November 19th, 2012. This is aimed towards learning to maximize holiday profit with marketing strategies.

The second is ‘Getting our Small Business Ready for the Tax Filing Season‘ to be held on November 28th, 2012. Here the focus is on tax saving advice for small businesses.

So happy November to all the entrepreneurs and small business owners we know and love. Thank you for employing half of all people in the private sector. Here’s to hoping that the forecasters are right and sales really do go up this holiday season.

 

 

If you’re a woman who started a business, we want to hear from you and celebrate your success with our 1,000 Stories Campaign. Your story will appear on The Story Exchange website and will be used to find candidates for future Story Exchange videos and blogs.