Waltham To Celebrate Small Business Saturday, Free Parking

WALTHAM, MA —Small Business Saturday is this weekend in Waltham. Although relatively new, the annual holiday shopping tradition encourages folks to buy local ahead of the big gift shopping season. With giant shopping holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday ruled by the big guys, Small Business Saturday a great way to help keep mom and pops in business.

Parking will be free at all the local lots and many of the smaller merchants will have special deals or snacks to entice customers.

Check out some of the shops that are participating:

Ahead of Saturday a new study puts the Watch City on the top of the list in the country when it comes to the best small cities in which to start a business.

"We’ve all heard the phrase, “small businesses are the backbone of the US economy” - and for good reason - small businesses make up 99.7% of US employer firms," said a spokesperson from Verizon Business in an email to Patch.

But what about the cities they start in? Analysts dug into six factors relevant to small business owners to determine the top cities in a recently released report.

Waltham ranked 43 out of 300 of small cities across the U.S.

The report "Best Small Cities to Start a Small Business" puts Waltham in the top 16.6 percent across the country when it comes to opening a business. >> You can view the full report here.

Verizon gathered data from small cities (as defined by the US Census) across the country. Analysts based ranking off of six metrics: education level of the local workforce, in-city commute times, income per capita, broadband access, availability of SBA loans, and overall tax friendliness.
Small Business Saturday will be all day Saturday around the city.

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff