Choice Celebrates Small Business Month

At Choice, we recognize small businesses’ impact on the culture and economy in both our local communities and the country. Small Business Month highlights the importance of small business owners across the United States. Throughout the month of May, we encouraged consumers to shop small and support their local businesses in multiple ways.

According to a 2020 study by the Small Business Administration, there are 31.7 million small businesses in the United States. With that number, small businesses comprise 99.9% of all U.S. businesses. These small businesses are estimated to create two out of every three new jobs in the country every year. 47.1% of all United States employees work at a small business. Chances are you know someone who works at or owns a small business and can understand the passion, hard work, and dreams they put into building a small business.

Being a business bank, we knew we had to celebrate our small businesses. Across Choice’s locations, our team members showed their support and appreciation for small businesses.

Grafton team members delivered chips and queso to 22 small businesses around town. “We delivered to future and current customers, from the dentist and the eye doctor to the gas stations,” said Morgan Smestad, Business Loan Servicing Specialist. “It was one of our customer’s second birthday of opening their business, so we brought them flowers that day too!”

“We baked up a whole bunch of trays of cookies and delivered them to a dozen businesses,” said Karen Schlecht, Senior Client Services Specialist. “They all really enjoyed it, they missed our cookies!”

Our Steele location celebrated Small Business Month by also delivering cookies to local small business customers.

Lysette Lopez, Personal Banker, in our Fargo location delivered Dilly Bars to some of her favorite small businesses in Fargo.

Organizational Effectiveness Specialist Kärsten Jensen showed her appreciation for small businesses by writing a thank you to her local CSA farmer, Dancing Gnome Farm, and by becoming a member of her local food co-op. “Small Business Month was the perfect time to support this amazing small business in our neighborhood,” Kärsten said.

To extend the Small Business Month celebration to our customers, we hosted a game of bingo. Players scored a bingo by supporting their local small businesses and are then entered in a drawing to win a $100 gift card to a small business in their community.

Small businesses bring memorable experiences and a unique community identity to main street. No matter how large or small the community, it would lose much of its character without its small business owners. Choice would not be where it is today without the support of our vibrant small business customers. This is why it’s important to invest in your community by shopping local and shopping small year-round.

Bettering the places we live is one of our core values. We’re dedicated to enhancing the quality of life and economic viability of families and businesses in our communities. Learn about our People First history here.