Small Business Saturday is Nov. 24. In S.C., more than 97% of all businesses are considered small businesses, and 46.7% of the South Carolina workforce is employed by small biz. To bring things a little closer to home, we asked GVL small business owner Reagan Burress to share her story.

“When you place an order with a small business, an actual person does a little happy dance.”

I stumbled upon this quote about a year ago, as my husband Christopher and I were heading into our very first holiday season as small business owners, and let me tell you – it is the truth.

There’s something about making a sale that is joy-inspiring and validating all at once. Whether it be a sale on our website or in person at a local pop-up market, it’s always met with a big smile and a surge of excitement for everything this business means to us.

Here at Local Stature, we make personalized wood signs by taking the maps of different cities and engraving them onto the outline of the state in which that city is found. We can personalize these signs to encompass all of your favorite places and dearest memories, and we try our best for our signs to tell a little bit of your story.

We are relatively new to the small business scene, and we have spent the last year and a half digging deeper into the Greenville creative community. We’ve learned from many of the talented local entrepreneurs who call the Upstate home, and have met many amazing local shoppers along the way. So many of you have chosen to share your story with us and support our business, and the impact is bigger than you may think.

Behind each small business is a person with ideas, dreams, goals and a little bit of grit to get the job done. No number of classes, courses or degrees could teach you all that you need to know before taking the plunge into entrepreneurship, and honestly, that’s part of the thrill.

We’re all learning and growing, trying our best to manage the current season of our businesses while looking ahead to what might be coming next. The owner is typically involved at every step of the way, and there is no shortage of hats that he or she needs to wear to make the business succeed. At Local Stature, everything from product development to marketing to making our wood signs and packaging up orders is done by yours truly.

The experience of shopping locally owned businesses is nothing if not exceedingly personal. By supporting local businesses, you are allowing us to support our families, to support other local businesses with our income, and to pour back into the local community. It’s an ongoing cycle, and ultimately it helps our community grow.

Beyond impacting the individual business, shopping locally also impacts the community as a whole. By personally connecting the buyer with the maker through small business, it creates connection and knits the community closer. We have met people who live in our neighborhood, go to our church, and grew up on the same street as us solely through this business, and these are people we most likely wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Greenville has the most incredible community of entrepreneurs, and honestly, I didn’t know this group existed before we started Local Stature. We have now been surrounded by a group of inspiring individuals that work incredibly hard to make their hopes for their businesses a reality.

Greenville has allowed us to grow our businesses and meet our goals, and as a result these businesses are impacting Greenville for the better. I bet that there is a local business selling just about anything you could want or need – just take a look around at all of the vendors at any of the local farmers' markets or the many upcoming holiday markets. There are so many local businesses to support here in Greenville, why would you shop anywhere else?

– Reagan Burress, owner of Local Stature + the GVLtoday team