Santa, can you hear me? A small biz holiday wish list
Dear Santa Claus,
Merry Christmas!
We small businesses sure hope you have had a better year than we did.
We also hope that this letter this finds you and Mrs. Claus well and in good health. Are you guys being safe, Santa? Please wash your hands a lot, and also, wear a mask – especially when you come into one of our stores. We sure don’t want to see anything bad happen to you because, frankly Santa, we could use all of the good cheer we can get right about now.
And a few presents wouldn’t be bad either!
We really tried to be good boys and girls this year, Santa, but honestly, it hasn’t been easy. Between shutdowns and quarantines and home-schooling and rude customers and no customers, some of us have just about had it!
But we did our best and that was pretty good, maybe even great.
A lot of us figured out how to move our businesses online, and how to serve our customers through plexiglass windows and six feet apart and not letting very many people in our stores – let’s see the elves do that!
But even so, we have a couple of things on our wish list this year Santa.
First of all, we really, really need more customers. Especially right now. This is the busiest time of year for a lot of us and so please Santa, our first Christmas wish is that you help our customers remember that there are a lot of places to shop besides Amazon.
Or, if they do shop on Amazon, could you please help them realize that a lot of small businesses sell and make their living on that site too? People can really easily support small business just by shopping small on that big site.
Also, Santa, a few of us really need extra help, especially, for example, movie theaters, live performance venues, and cultural institutions. Fortunately, these venues are going to finally get some help because one of our Christmas wishes was granted and Congress FINALLY passed a COVID relief bill that included assistance for those important businesses.
We are very happy that there is a lot in that new bill for real small businesses – not like last time, when public companies and huge brands somehow qualified for assistance (The Church of Scientology, Kanye West’s clothing company?) This time, the mom and pops among us are going to be the recipients, and that’s as it should be.
Finally Santa, we want to thank you because two of our wishes have already come true.
First, there is a vaccine and hope on the horizon, and there is nothing better than that for helping life get back to normal and getting folks back into our stores and shops. Just imagine Santa, people walking the streets and filling the stores and eating and laughing and cheering together again. That would be our Christmas miracle!
Which brings us to our other wishcome-true. As you know, the new year is right around the corner, and that means 2020 is finally, thankfully, happily almost over.
And that really is the best thing that could happen this year. Sincerely,
Small Business