Small Business Saturday holds plenty of promise for Amanda McClements, who this month opened her second boutique home goods shop in Washington.

In a unique twist, it may hold even more promise for one of her first employees.

Mallory Shelter, who still works weekends now and then at McClements’ Salt & Sundry stores, will hold a trunk show at one of the shops on Saturday afternoon featuring her growing line of handmade jewelry — an important opportunity for an entrepreneur working to turn a longtime hobby into a sustainable business.

“Obviously there’s a sales component, but it’s more about the exposure,” said Shelter, who works full-time in public relations while also selling jewelry she makes in her home in the District. “Jewelry is such a hard thing to sell online, because it’s very personal, so to be able to meet with customers face-to-face and explain to people my process and my story is such an amazing opportunity.”

Shelter isn’t the only online seller who will have a storefront to work from this weekend. American Express, which started the Small Business Saturday campaign in 2010 to steer shoppers toward locally owned stores on the day after Black Friday, this year teamed up with online marketplace Etsy to link home-based artisans with brick-and-mortar retailers willing to host their trunk shows and help them nab a slice of the more than $36 billion Americans are expected to spend this weekend.

Others local businesses hosting trunk shows include Covet Arlington in Arlington, Va. Shop the Muse in Frederick, Md., and the Cheeky Puppy in the District.

Over the past few years, the holiday has gained momentum and captured the attention of Washington’s leaders, with President Obama visiting a different local bookstore to support the campaign each of the past three years. McClements, who opened her first store two years ago in D.C.’s Union Market, said the store enjoyed “a very noticeable bump” in foot traffic last year, including a visit from Attorney General Eric Holder and his family.

Most importantly, though, the Small Business Saturday campaign seems to have “made more shoppers think about where they are spending their money and whether stores are locally owned,” McClements said, noting that patrons increasingly check with her to make sure the Salt & Sundry shops aren’t part of a large chain.

On Saturday, those customers will have a two-for-one opportunity of sorts, with the chance to shop at two locally owned businesses in one stop. And for McClements and Shelter, this isn’t the first time they have leaned on one another.

“We have kind of gone through this small-business experience together, where she was launching her first store and I was trying to establish my unique brand and decide whether or not to really start selling my jewelry,” said Shelter, who was one of McClements’ first hires when the original store opened in November 2012.

A former food and lifestyle writer in Washington, McClements started thinking about opening the store a year earlier — while holiday shopping — when she couldn’t find a shop in her neighborhood that brought together all of her favorite items. “Someone said to me, why don’t you just open it yourself,” she recalls. Now three years later, she recently unveiled her second location on 14th Street NW.

Shelter, meanwhile, has been tinkering with her craft since high school, when a family friend shuttered her jewelry business and passed some of her supplies, stones and trade secrets to Shelter. It was merely a hobby until a few years ago, when Shelter started taking metal-smithing classes in the District.

“That really did it,” she said. “It reinvigorated this love I had for jewelry.”

She started selling earrings and necklaces to family and friends last year, and she eventually started an Etsy store online, which quickly took off. Since then, she has sold several hundred pieces through Etsy, her own site, craft events and several wholesale accounts with boutiques in D.C., Maryland, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

Her first line was sold in Salt & Sundry, which helped open the door to the other accounts. It would have been much more challenging to break into the retail space without that first connection, she said.

“All of us are trying to build our own small businesses in our own way, and there are opportunities to collaborate and create mutually beneficial relationships,” she said.

Cha-ching – that’s the sweet sound of success in retail, baby! And with throngs of customers visiting your shop around the holiday time, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to buy. Try one or more of these strategies to make your cash register ring right along with those sleigh bells.

Invest in Your Infrastructure

Improvements in three key areas yield good returns – beyond closing sales:

1. Upgrade or install an mPOS system: If you already use a mobile point of sale (mPOS) solution like ShopKeep or Square, check for upgrades and make them before the rush. If you have a traditional POS system, explore adding mobile functionality. And if you don’t have a POS solution at all, now is the time to invest in one.The right POS bundle does more than ring up sales. “With the cloud, tablet point of sale systems make it easy to understand everything that goes on in the store,” explains Brian Zang, vice president of sales and marketing at ShopKeep. “At the highest level, it can tell me things like what items sell the best and which don’t, and how much staff should I have and on which days. These are critical decisions that can really affect margins.”

   POS systems also allow you to accept more forms of payment, and with mobile options, you or an employee can complete sales from anywhere in your store – perfect for when there’s a very long line at the checkout. And mPOS makes it easy to accept payments at fairs and expos, and to collect important customer information so you can follow up after the event.

2. Gather customer insights: Learning more about who is buying from you is exponentially easier with a good POS system. There have been “advancements in understanding customers’ preferences and buying behaviors, and using that when communicating with them is critical,” Zang says. It allows you to be proactive in bringing your customer base into the store, letting you tell them you have what they want instead of waiting for them to come in on their own. “It’s a great way to get ahead of seasonal events,” he adds. “For instance, you can send an email inviting people to come in and shop before the holiday rush.”Customer data also lets you engage more effectively when customers are in the store. “With a name or email address, you can see past purchase history and use that information. ‘I know you were looking for X when you were here earlier. Here’s something you’re going to love,'” Zang explains. “Customer data on favorite colors, birthday, etc., makes selling – and buying – easier.”
3. Make your Web site responsive: Research shows a lot of people use mobile devices to simplify their shopping, especially at the holidays. According to IBM, 19.1 percent of all e-commerce sales in December 2013 took place on a cell phone or tablet, up three-fold from December 2011. The company estimates that in November 2014, 20 percent of online sales and more than 43 percent of Web traffic will come from mobile devices.That’s why it’s critical to make your Web site “responsive” so it works well on any device and platform. Does that concept intimidate you? Engage with a local digital marketing expert to do the heavy lifting.

Ensure a Better Customer Experience

Next, turn your attention to the customer experience:

1. Hire smart: “According to a June 2013 Gallup poll, nearly 70 percent of employees are not engaged. What kind of experience is a disengaged worker going to provide to a prospective customer?” asks Randi Busse, co-author of Turning Rants into Raves: Turn Your Customers on Before They Turn on YOU! “Probably not a very good one, which is why many customers walk out of a retail establishment without making a purchase – and that’s a bad or indifferent customer service experience.”The antidote? Hire employees who think and act like owners, says Busse. “When there is a culture of ownership, it’s a pleasure doing business with the company. Customers go out of their way to visit the retailer, are willing to pay more for a good experience, and are inclined to share their experience with their family and friends. Explain to employees that the customers are the ones who pay their salary. If we don’t treat the customers well, they may not come back. If they don’t come back, we won’t have a need for your employment.”
2. Be a consultant: Great salespeople facilitate shopping, helping customers to get answers, explore options and make decisions.Embrace the Race, a brick-and-mortar and online retailer of horse-racing apparel, accessories and housewares, offers a personal shopping service in the store and online. “This personal touch allows customers to browse and then contact a personal shopping assistant to help put together packages,” explains Mike DeAnzeris, president and founder of the Saratoga, NY–based company. Sales associates spend between 12 and 17 minutes, asking questions to assess needs and preferences and then making recommendations for an individual item, an entire outfit or a gift package. “The human interaction in fashion shopping can never be replaced. Our customers appreciate and are put at ease knowing they have a team that can help.”

   Kristie Glenn owns Blue Labels Boutique, an online clothing retailer based in San Antonio, TX. She offers her customers the opportunity to chat online. “It gives them the opportunity to get an immediate answer to a question about a product, or to inquire about something they’re looking for,” she says. “It’s good for my store because it’s like walking up to the customer and asking, ‘How can I help you today?’ It makes the customer feel like they are walking into a store and they have a specialist who can help them.” She uses Tidio Chat, which is integrated into her Web site. Glenn keeps the app up all day so she can respond immediately. “It can help to drive sales by being able to give and receive instant feedback,” she adds.

   Another way to do this is through your email marketing: Instead of sending promotions, share information that helps your customers and makes you a valued resource – not just a place to buy stuff. Better yet, use your email as a chance to introduce your employees, so customers have someone to look for when they come into your store.

3. Help customers save time: For many consumers, time is at a premium around the holidays, so helping them shave a few minutes is often enough to ensure loyalty. Allow shoppers to call in their orders or buy online and pick up in store. “It shows that we truly value our customers’ time and want to make it easy for them,” explains Gillan Hawkes, director of omnichannel for Staples. “Customers like it, because it ensures the things they want will be ready for them within two hours when they come into the store. They won’t have to waste time-fighting the crowds. Also, it’s a safe, secure and convenient place for customers to have their items delivered – especially important during the holiday season.” 

   Another way to make the shopping experience less stressful is to create a sitting area for companions who don’t want to browse; some stores and shopping centers even offer childcare. Another nicety: Offering self-service coffee, cocoa, water and snacks to provide an energy boost to weary holiday shoppers.

Instituting all these tactics may be too ambitious this holiday season, so pick one or two that are both doable and high-impact. When (or if) things slow down, add others so you’re increasing sales all year long – and are ready for next year’s holiday shopping season.

For a long time the prevailing narrative on Main Street America was one of seemingly inevitable decay, in which local mom-and-pop shops were destined for obliteration at the hands of monolithic big-box retailers and impersonal e-commerce players.  ‘Why shop local when you can shop cheap?’ seemed, for many, simply too compelling a question to ignore – and Walmart and Amazon reaped the benefits.

So what was underlying this dramatic shift towards larger scale enterprises?  The answer is that big-box retailers and chain restaurants were able to dominate our business landscape through technology.  Technology for payments, inventory management, detailed data analytics, automated payroll, and a whole lot more.  Simply put, they had access to tools that enabled them to provide a consistent customer experience across the country; that constantly optimized prices; and that allowed retailers to maintain a ruthless control on their operating costs.

The problem for your local Mom & Pop was, of course, that this technology cost a small fortune. I started and spent many years running retail stores before I founded ShopKeep, and I remember my first point of sale systems costing well over $10,000.  And that was just for hardware.  I had to pay for the software, and the security patches, and I could only access sales data in the basement of my store.  The kicker?  If anything went wrong, I had to pay for customer care, too!  The prevailing business model of technology providers at the time was to secure as much money upfront as possible and then ‘cut and run’ by making you pay for customer care.  Needless to say, this structure favored the larger companies, who could swallow these costs.

The Good News? Times Have Changed.

The advent of cloud-based technology has dramatically lowered upfront hardware and software costs and made data more available than ever before.  What’s more, it now seems like a new start-up pops up every day with technology targeted at small business owners. Innovation has been ceaseless, competition has grown, and the price point has been driven downwards.

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Now, a new local entrepreneur can access a whole range of services and tools that would have previously cost tens of thousands of dollars on day one.  Services like point of sale systems, scheduling and payroll, gift cards and loyalty services, accounting and bookkeeping, and billing and invoicing are now available for less than the price of a good meal.  In fact, there’s now so much great technology out there that it can be a little overwhelming, which is why I’ve put together a guide to the best technologies for small business owners to help get you get up to speed.

The Results are Clear

According to the Census Bureau, there are currently 23 million small businesses across America, which account for 54% of U.S. annual sales and have contributed 65% of all net new jobs since 1995. In short, small businesses are making up an increasingly big part of our national economy and forming the lifeblood of our local communities.

Tech-savvy small business owners are now running their affairs in a lean, data-led way; embracing the web to reach, engage, and retain customers; using technology to run efficient operations and optimize profits; and placing innovation at the heart of how they run their businesses.

For those of us who love diversity and originality – and who recognize the value of local entrepreneurship to the economy – the fact that we can bring some of this efficiency and advanced analytics to the small business community is a huge opportunity.  And for the aspiring local entrepreneur, there has never been a better time to get started.

The technology that big businesses have had at their disposal for thirty years is now in the hands of the guy running your local bodega, the mom-and-pop behind your neighborhood wine store, and the young entrepreneur starting a new food truck.

For anyone interested in opening a store or restaurant in their neighborhood, we’ve written a Small Business 101 guide to help you get started and grow your business.

Several large corporations are entering the Portland market or expanding their local operations over the next several months, giving a boost to Portland’s economy. Though the exact number of jobs to be added is still being determined in some cases, Portland could see upwards of a thousand or more new jobs added to its economy from Aruba Networks, ShopKeep, eBay, Under Armour, CarMax, Fred Meyer and Cabela’s.

• In a sign Portland’s tech sector is gaining strength, ShopKeep recently moved into its downtown 6th Street location. Based in New York City, ShopKeep produces an iPad-based point-of-sale system for merchants. It previously operated out of a temporary office near the Lloyd District with 15 employees. Its new permanent location can accommodate as many as 100 employees, reports the Portland Business Journal. ShopKeep plans to grow its West Coast business and selected Portland as a primary outpost for related expansion.

• Aruba Networks, which specializes in wireless enterprise network infrastructure, has also targeted a location in downtown Portland to house its expanding U.S. operations. According to the Portland Business Journal, the Sunnyvale, California-based company says it will likely add 70-100 local jobs and house it sales and support, IT, and research and development functions in Portland. Aruba Networks, which intends to be in the new office by March 2015, believes the office could expand and eventually include several hundred positions.

• eBay’s quiet but steady growth in Portland may soon be taking an aggressive step forward as the online giant is making room to add 200 local jobs. According the Portland Business Journal, eBay’s Portland office helped generate $20 billion in commerce last year, roughly one-third of its global marketplace business.
In addition to tech companies, several large retailers representing diverse sectors of the economy are also expanding to Portland.

• Last year, sports retailer Under Armor indicated plans to add 20 jobs in its growing Portland office in 2014. The company is based out of Baltimore and opened a Portland office in 2014, pledging 20 new jobs at that time. Under Armor is currently on track to meet its initial job projection and is currently looking to fill new several positions.

• CarMax has officially entered the Portland market. With a store recently opened in Clackamas and one in the works for Beaverton, CarMax plans to add roughly 175 local jobs.

• Kroger, which owns Fred Meyer, has plans to add 20,000 new jobs across the country, including 1700 in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. Fifty-three Fred Meyer stores operate throughout Portland.

• Cabela’s held a grand opening on September 18 for its new store in Tualatin—the company’s first store in the Portland Metro Area. The outdoor sports retailer is in the process of filling 200 local jobs.