Every year since 1963, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation announcing National Small Business Week. This week recognizes the contributions of America’s small business owners. This year, that week begins today. We think it is wonderful to have such a week and want to thank the Small Business Administration (SBA) and all of the sponsors of Small Business Week for their participation.

During this week, you will hear small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy, employing half of our country’s workforce and creating nearly two out of every three new American jobs. The size of small business, when viewed as one big institution, is staggering. But we think there’s something even more staggering…

(Photo by Stavos via Flickr)

We think the most amazing statistic is the  number of customers who shop at small businesses, or who hire small businesses to provide them all forms of professional and personal services. At last count, that number was more than 320 million.

(Photo by Stavos via Flickr)

While small businesses create jobs, there’s another thing that small businesses and their customers do that’s equally important: They create communities.

And we’re not talking about the online virtual kind of communities, but the real kind of communities where you’ll find the name of a small business on the back of your child’s soccer jersey.

(Photo by Stavos via Flickr)

So, in addition to celebrating small businesses this week, we’d like to also celebrate small business customers—those who choose to support local and small businesses not just during one week, or one day, but throughout the year.

Thank you, customers who make it a point to support small retailers, manufacturers, farmers, artisans, service providers, and on-and-on…

By supporting small businesses, you too are the lifeblood of the economy. You make the job-creating engine work.

(Photos from the awesome Flickr album, Larry’s Store. by stavos. [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

(Originally published on SmallBusiness.com, May, 2014)