SMALL businesses are being urged to seize the opportunity to promote themselves to the public on a day devoted to celebrating them.

Small Business Saturday started in the US in 2010, where it attracted the support of President Barack Obama.

It was partly to a response to Black Friday, the big post-Thanksgiving sales push there, and the online phenomenon of Cyber Monday, both of which tended to favour the big players in retail.

It was brought to the UK for the first time last year, with political support from the likes of David Cameron, Ed Miliband, business secretary Vince Cable and shadow business secretary Chukka Umunna.

This year’s event, backed by American Express, is on December 6.

Mandy Payne, of Spotcheckers Retail, who is also president of Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said: “Small Business Saturday is simply to make sure we are encouraging our small businesses wherever they are.”

The Borough of Poole is supporting the initiative by printing 10,000 leaflets which will be delivered across the borough to encourage residents to shop locally. Mandy Payne is involved with Poole’s campaign in her day job as a retail consultant, as well as supporting Bournemouth businesses through her voluntary role with the town’s chamber.

“Small businesses on the high street are not predominantly retail,” she said.

“Everybody sees that, all the retailers, but we have a huge amount of cottage industries working from home.

“It’s one day a year for those businesses to shout about what they do.

“We need to make sure our community knows our small businesses are there, what we do and what we can do to support them on the day.”

The Federation of Small Businesses estimates there are 4.9m small businesses in the UK, employing 24.3m people. Their combined turnover was more than £3,300bn.

The advantage of taking part in Small Business Saturday is that they can join up to a ready-made promotional effort, with marketing materials free to download at smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com They can engage with other traders via Facebook – with pages set up specifically for Poole and for Bournemouth – and choose what offers they will promote to customers on the day.

“What we’ve got to do is encourage our locals to shop locally on Small Business Saturday,” said Mandy Payne.

“A small business might be a bed and breakfast, someone selling insurance, a small estate agent.

“There are a lot of small businesses out there which have a few members of staff which need our help to make sure they stay on the high street and keep growing.

“We’re trying to encourage these small businesses to put on an offer on the day and let people know what they’re doing.”

Poole council’s leader, Cllr Elaine Atkinson, said: “Days like this highlight the variety of small businesses across our community and I would encourage our residents to show their support and keep some of their Christmas shopping local this year.”

Westbourne has chosen to hold is Christmas Festival to coincide with Small Business Saturday, with Mungo Jerry performing the switch-on of the Christmas lights at 4.15pm.

Steve Taylor, president of Westbourne Traders Association, said: “We really got involved with Small Business Saturday and it’s important because it gives us focus on the number of small businesses that are here, which is a real strength for Westbourne.”

He said traders were getting involved and devising their own promotions.

“We do have some chains here but the majority of businesses are small businesses. They’re one-offs and often niche businesses,” he said.

“Small business is the lifeblood of the country.”