all around the country, small businesses are gearing up for the holiday rush and figuring out how to get new customers to shop small. from golden, colorado, a special edition of "your business." american express open can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order. or expand your office. for those who constantly find new ways to grow on every step of the journey, american express open proudly presents, "your business" on msnbc.

hi, everyone. welcome to a very special small business saturday edition of "your business" here in golden, colorado. six years ago, small business saturday, that day in between black friday and cyber monday, got its start. since then communities across the country have banded together to get people to shop local as they kick off the holiday season. here in golden, nestled at the foot of the rocky mountain and just 15 miles from denver, it's a community steep in history and entrepreneurship. from the gold prospectors to the coarse brewery. we talked to small business owners here on main street to find out what they're doing to get people to shop local and

what the biggest business in town, coarse brew coarse coors doing to boost traffic on main street. with a large western style sign welcoming visitors with the word howdy, folks, golden is a beautiful historic town, that is serious about doing the shop local thing right. >> i knew this would be be the place to take a miss. >> our businesses were built bhi the community. >> main street is dotted by the kinds of businesses you'd expect. speciality shops, cafes, a hardware store, but it also has something unique. and not small at all. the historic coors brewery, a business founded in 1873. when we were driving up here, we passed a coors bus for tourists, but it was coming from town. >> yeah, so why was it in town?

>> we feel strongly about partnering the communities with with where we work and brew beer. and so we have a strong partnership with golden getting our visitors to see if they can go into town after their tour for lunch, dinner, go shopping, see some of the great museums. >> that's right, this big company does a lot to help all of the small companies right down the street, the small businesses that give golden its hometown feel. >> tell me about the golden ticket that you get. >> yes. tour bus drivers will hand every visitor a golden ticket and they can take it into a business and scratch off to win either percentage off of their purchase in a business in downtown golden or they could win up to $500. >> coors does more than just accepted the visitors down the block, it also does what it can to directly support the local boys. ryan hutchinson open one of the

many small craft breweries. >> con twraer trary to what you think, there is no competition. it's a different ball game and they have been nothing but supportive. we purchase ingredients from them and their employees have come in here and the had beers after work. >> but there is much more to the local support. the people and business owners of golden are focused on making sure that they're creating a place in a business community people want to support. kelly jackson is an optometrist that opened table mountain vision 18 years ago. >> what is it about this community and this place that makes everyone want to shop local to support the local businesses on the street? >> people love it here. they become very, very fiercely devoted to the town and they support the schools, they support the businesses because they know if we don't have a vital business community, that that will hurt them. we don't want to lose this special place that we is here.

>> part of what makes this place so special has nothing to do with the town itself. >> you have the incredible things that go on with the outdoors, as far as gateway to the rocky mountains, foothills, rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking. >> but all of those incredible natural elements contribute to making people so fiercely engaged in ensuring golden retains its small up to feeling. de diane webber fell so in love with golden that she decided to rent a space in the center of town 8 years ago to open a coffee shop. her objective from day one was to create a hub for the community. >> if you go to any small shop on the main street, you will see the owner in the shop which is fabulous. if you need to speak withes owner, 9 chances out of 10, they will be there. it's unique like that because we stay here, we work here, we live here. >> steve schaffer is one of those people who has lived and worked in golden for his entire

life. as the third generation owner of this 70-year-old business, mye represe r hardware, his store has just about everything and then some. >> we have fishing rods, house wears, canning equipment, lawn and garden. >> and even though golden has several big box store, steve says when a customer can't come what they're looking for, the large stores often refer them back to myer. >> probably a day doesn't go by that we don't have a recommendation from one of the big boxes. >> and the owners on main street are working together to use the small business saturday as an opportunity to further the community's engagement with the local businesses. >> small business saturday is a huge deal. we have that morning the elf run. which is 5 k through town. we all have the opportunity to give out products and samples and coupons. a lot of people will do the race

and then have breakfast in town. >> anywhere to the 5 k run, vital outdoors is one of several main street retailers participating in a scavenger hunt where customers take a selfie with a ceramic elf hidden somewhere on the store shelves. >> it's a fun thing for the whole family to come in and look for the elf. >> kelly perkins has opened one golden's newest retail shops. with her store located off the main street, she's not worried about customers finding her on small business saturday. she's witnessed firsthand the spirit of cooperation that seems to be the hallmark of this tight knit community. >> i had other store owners coming down saying if you have any posters or cards or anything like that that you would like us to share with our customers, we'd be happy to do that.

it's amazing hugh supportive the businesses are of each other. >> fargo, north dakota is always open for business. that's what small business owners in the state's largest city want you to know. they decided that the local custom of closing down on sundays just wasn't good for the bottom line. so a group of retailers is now committed to staying open seven days a week to encourage locals and businesses to shop local. to open or not to open? >> a lot of sundays we will do more sales per hour than we would on a regular weekday. >> it's a question a lot of small business openiusiness own are trying to answer as their community becomes more of a destination, should they be open for business on sunday. >> as we see the traffic increase, we've increased our hours with it. we just haven't hit that sunday part yet for us. >> josie and kerry are two of

the retailers downtown. josie and the team have been open on sunday since the store opened in 1991. >> sunday is a day for families and friends to get together and a lot of times that's the only day that people can go out and do their shopping. if we're not open on sundays, where else do they have to go other than like the mall or the big box stores. or our competition. >> just a few doors down at hand made art and gifts gallery, kerry's hours are a little different. she's decided to stick to her monday through saturday schedule. >> when you're in a business that revolves around weekends sometimes, you realize how much the rest of the world revolves around a monday through friday school with social life on saturday/sunday. and we still wanted a little bit of that normalcy. >> the split has helped bring the open sundays campaign to life. >> we tried to put together a strong campaign. it's simple.

>> the downtown community partnership spearheads the effort to encourage owners and customers alike to shop on sundays. >> we're supporting it with stickers and other promotional materials as far as on social media. we're getting involved as far as seeing what we can do for sunday events. and just kind of advocating them and working in partnership with them to see what we can do to build the sunday hours. >> mike hahn is the president. while saturdays are known for heavy toot traffic and special events, sundays are cleary quieter. that's why mike believes that there is plenty of room for improvement. >> people coming in to the community, they want to have more unique shops and more unique places to go on a sunday. we've had about 30 plus stores that have looked at, okay, let's try this. we're about a 33% to 40% that are open downtown. >> the strategy isn't only targeting residents. it's aimed at tourists, as well. so many visitors now consider fargo a regional destination. >> this is an opportunity i

think on sundays to capture some of that are market share. a good majority of those are coming up from manitoba north of the border up in canada and they're here on sundays. there is a lot mormon holidays up in canada. >> tom smith who owns the great northern bike company says he has no regrets about opening on sundays. >> sundays are oftentimes our busiest days hour by hour. >> his wish is that his neighbors would take a look at the bigger picture when they decide to stay closed. >> it's important for all businesses like in the downtown community to consider what the impact of choosing to be open or choosing not to be open on sunday has on the rest of the retail community. >> while josie agrees that everyone needs to run their business as they see fit, she's still surprised that sunday hours aren't more common. >> i get that there are road blocks to being open on sunday especially for a small business. but that's sort of what business is. and if you want to own a business, you have to make some of those sacrifices. working every day or finding people to work, you just have to

trust that it will pay off. >> fargo has a unique challenge when it comes to hiring staff to fill those weekend shifts. the city has low unemployment, which means some positions actually sit empty. >> we have a tight labor market here. so it's hard to find people that would want to work on sundays. so that's been kind of a concern from our retailers perspective, as well. >> another chat think llenge ise law. it prevents adviceis fr s busin opening until noon. >> for a time it was actually not legal for businesses to be open if north dakota on sundays. >> knowing that old habits die hard, the retailers who do open on sundays say it's better than nothing. they also realize they have to commit to their hours for at least two years to get people used to the idea of shopping on sundays. >> this isn't a short term

buy-in. you have to stay committed over the long term. so at least two years to kind of change those consumer perceptions. >> even kerry admits there is no way she can keep her six day work schedule forever. >> we know that we're missing a certain sector of business on sundays. and we know that that would help increase our bottom line. we're building a team to be able to even oof us work our five days wherever they fell during the week. >> she believes that she could soon be joining the ranks of the businesses open daily. >> about 80% of the businesses understand the need to be open sundays and we all agree that the more of us that are open, the better it will be. we do want to be open on sundays when we're ready to take that step. >> dozens of mayors, governors, federal and state officials have been strong proponents of small business saturday and shop local movement. it goes without saying that the small businessed a hin strags has been in the forefront of getting the american public to

support their community's independent pmerchants. we're happy to talk to the administrate to have about this. it's pretty a smazing to have watch this had take a life of its open over the past six years, small business saturday. why do you think it's gotten so big and really touched a nerve with people? >> there are a couple things going on. one is i talked to business owners across the country, they always express their gratitude about what sba is doing and the role they play in their entrepreneurship journey. they're glad that we're there to help them start their business, to repair their business, to grow or even scale their business. but at the end of the day what they really want is customers and i think communities are embracing that notion to assume the local neighbors and also to bring a local flavor to every community. >> has there been any particular towns or small businesses that you think are really doing it right and if so, what is it that

they're doing? >> just yesterday for example i was in new orleans and they have this beautiful street called magazine. and it's just about five miles of just small businesses. and on weekends, you just see everybody come and the streets are full and brimming with excitement from bakeries to cafes to restaurants. items for your home. and it's sxhit to s exciting t' see that taking place. last year i spent my town around georgetown and anacostia and it was again a similar experience. people are making the community connection, running in to neighbors and finding unique items. >> i just think the thing that is most obvious but a lot of people don't take the time to think about is which is you may take that toy store for granted when you need it and if you actually don't shop there, it will be gone. again it's obvious, but i'm not

sure everyone makes that connection. >> i'm so delighted that you say that. in my own community, every time i go out to do my work in the walk to the farmer's market, i make an effort to go in and to buy a couple of chocolates, to buy baked goods, to do what i can to support the community because i know that every little sale matters. and let me tell you, it's tough for small businesses today. they're competing with globalized companies, they're sourcing from all over the world. but the more you shop local, the more you're turning the dollar in your own community and creating local jobs. but on saturday, we want everybody to come out and shop small and dine small. >> well, we so appreciate you stopping by. and i am with you right there in encouraging everybody to go shop small on small business saturday. it was great to see you. >> and if i could just tell that you this saturday i'll be out on the west coast at the mar vista community and i hope people come out and join me for a country of green tea or whatever their favorite drink is at atmosphere

cafe or that we can go bowling. let's get out and shop small. >> fantastic. thanks, administrator. >> thank you. search engine optimization may be a strong part of your market being mix. so here are five practices that could help with your local strategy. courtesy of inc.com. one, spend timeup dating all the businesses your business appears online. two, target third party visibility. get on websites like yelp and refer local. they can direct locals to your business. travel sites like trip adviser and orbitz can also help you bring even more business. three, capitalize on social media. every time someone likes, shares or follows a post, you gain credibility. be on as many relevant platforms

as possible and interact with local followers regularly. four, improve content quality. offer useful content that will appeal to your local customers. and five, strategize key word. they're extremely important for local nco. but if used poorly, they can hurt your rankings. a few well placed key words are most helpful in the met take oig descriptions. >> we will ask our viewer what is you're doing to get customers to shop local on small business saturday. and get your buzzers ready as our experts duke it out on a special small business saturday biz quiz. this is more than just a town. this is our home. and small business saturday...

is more than just a day. it's our day... to shop small at the places we love... with the people we love. for stuff we can't get anywhere else. and food that tastes like home. because the money we spend here... can help keep our town growing. today is small business saturday, let's all shop small. for the neighborhood, the town, the home we love. shop small today. what we add is value, entertainment, personal services, high level customer service, those kind of added value. we provide shipping services. but it's not just the messaging is definitely about buying local. the messaging is definitely about shopping small every day. and what those local dollars really mean to keeping the community vie brant and keeping small businesses in your

communities and so every purchase reallybrant and keepin small businesses in your communities and so every purchase really contributes to the greater good. >> as we've seen from east coast to west coast, communities are coming up with ways to get customers to avoid big box stores and shop local. the creativity behind so many of these promotions and events is a testament to the power of entrepreneurial ingenuity. small business saturday, which started six years ago, is a way to draw customers away from big box stores the day after black friday has spawned a movement that transcends the holiday shopping season. it made consumers aware of how important it is to supporting the locally independent businesses. on main street and online year-round. the movement has grown to a year long effort by communities, motivating local businesses to

develop customers. live local saturday is an effort to encourage residents to shop, type and play locally. the initiative to get customers to shop small on saturday reinforces the importance of supporting family, friends and neighbors. >> the need has increased due to the greater options for people to shop. on the internet, in the small traffic. and it's really just become harder to be a local shop. >> when you do have a united front and people are thinking out side the box and they're looking at ways that they can promote their businesses, it will be a great thing for everybody involved. >> washington, d.c. small businesses got together and created an event called art all night. by offering entertainment and demonstrations, they increase foot traffic and awareness about

per chacht merchants shoppers m been aware of. >> a great if you want for a lot of foot traffic. >> it introduces them to our businesses.you want for a lot of foot traffic. >> it introduces them to our businesses. maybe they don't enwalk in that night, but they see it and held come back. >> in portland, a group of owners called a locality program called support land. customers use a card that gives them points they can exchange for rewards. >> the rewards are important as more of like a hook, like a game. it makes it fun. but our customers just want an excuse to get out there and support local. >> another effective campaign is a statewide effort in get customers to ship 10% of their shopping dollars from local businesses. the message is simple. when you spend local, your money stays local and improves the quality of life for your community. >> what we're saying is let's be mindful of where our money goes when we spend it and understand the local business then in turn

will have a local account apt or graphic designer and it creates additional jobs. >> so whether it's for small business saturday or year-round, people arending shopping local is important. >> you should definitely shop local. this is where you want to be and you want to keep us this business. >> those are some of the ways small businesses are attracting customers. we got more ideas from viewers just like you. >> for small biz saturday, in our local stores, we always do some sort of promotion like buy one get one, something like that. and then also on our website, we usually offer some short of shipping deal because we ship nationwide. >> the business association are co-hosting a breakfast. so we will have a sidewalk sale to make sure that people know

that we're here and feel welcome coming in and then a certain portion of our profit is going to go to a local charity. >> for small business saturday, we're hyper focused at our retail location which is a small part of the business. so we're in our retail store, 10% bonuses or 10% discounts. >> we will be participating in small business saturday. we'll give away a free class for all new members or potential members. so one of our promotions we'll be running is a $39 deal for unlimited classes for a month. >> for small biz saturday, we work on it to the point that we can support single orders. >> main street always has a series of events and lots of merchants are always participating. what i do is have a santa's sleigh with lots of goodies for

the children to choose from. so mom and dad are perusing the gallery and the children are taking their time. sometimes a long time, finding the perfect gift. >> we do the free early check-in for guests who mention that. they get in their property three hours early. >> it's time now for a special shop local edition of your favorite game show, the your business biz quiz. today we hit jeffrey the change agent against mike profit first. all right, gentlemen.phit jeffre agent against mike profit first. all right, gentlemen.it jeffrey agent against mike profit first. all right, gentlemen. put your hands on the buzzers. are you ready? >> absolutely. >> oh, yeah. >> we were born for this. >> let's see if you can get the these. according to a survey, what is the number one thing you should do to attract customers? mike. >> oh, wow. hold on temperatu.

siri, what is the answer? can you show the answers again? >> oh, no way. >> it was b. >> had to be b. i agree with you. >> nope, mike, i'm going with your b. wrong. jeffrey. >> i'll go with c. >> precisely define your ideal client. you win. >> yes! >> i love playing him. >> number two, according to seattle good business network, how much more money do small businesses donate to charities and nonprofits than larger enterprises? 10%, 240%, 50%, 35%? >> i'm going with c again. >> c? 50%? >> yes. >> no. mike. >> i would say d, 35%. >> nope. it's 240%. >> that's what i said. >> wow. nice try. wire not good at math, but we're great at marketing.

>> let's go to the next one. according to the small business saturday consumer insight survey, how much money was spent at small businesses on small business saturday last year? jeff. >> i'm going to go with d, $32 billion. >> no. mike. >> 14 bill. we all know it. >> we all know it, come on, jeffrey. mike, you have found it. >> boom! he's back. >> this is for the win. according to a survey conducted by small business marketing software company yodel, that's a hint, what is the number one thing local customers want from fr small businesses over the next 12 months out of the next four? not the number one thing in general, out of the next four. loyalty rewards, lower prices, better quality merchandise and services, website improvements. >> i think it is loyalty rewards. even though it doesn't necessarily make sense, i think that's what they want.

>> high risk, in this case, not high rewards. >> thanks for gaming me like that. >> jeffrey, can you answer this question correctly is this. >> i'm going to go with lower prices. >> i would have guessed that also, but this game is ending tied. it was d, website improve t theme thementmentes. >> thank you for taking part in the your business biz quiz. thanks for joining us today. if you missed anything, just head to our website, it's open forum.com/your business. you'll find everything we have on the show today plus a lot more to help your mibusiness gr. you can also for us on twitter, instagram and facebook. next time we meet a rope maker whosout look on innovation has gotten cowboys and rodeo performers to become local customers. >> business is pretty much business. i don't care if you're selling

widgets or ropes or whatever, the business model is the same. but i try to look and say how can we adapt that to what we're doing. what would be different, what could we add to our product line. >> we'll see how he's lassoing up new business. until then, remember, we make your business our business. and have a great small business saturday. this is more than just a town. this is our home. and small business saturday... is more than just a day. it's our day... to shop small at the places we love... with the people we love. for stuff we can't get anywhere else. and food that tastes like home. because the money we spend here... can help keep our town growing. today is small business saturday,

let's all shop small. for the neighborhood, the town, the home we love. shop small today. due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >> they are the inmates whose stories we'll never forget and whose lives have taken twists you'll never believe. now we reveal whatever became of paul komyatti. >> never see me in here again. twin brothers, roy and ray slagle. >> i love it. i'm so happy. >> ronnie tye and the woman he married in prison, jodie mormon. >> will you have this woman as your wedded wife? >> finally, the answers you've been waiting for.