BALTIMORE — There's no time like the present to support small businesses in Baltimore.
This Small Business Saturday, in Mount Vernon, you have a chance to support 15 of them at the Hotel Revival. Its "Shop Small Vendor Market" takes place this Saturday from 2pm-5pm.
It takes a lot of risk to start a business; a lot of passion, risk and effort.
The difficulties involved are not lost on Jasmine Garland, director of impact for the Mount Vernon hotel.
"I'm the daughter of an entrepreneur, and so I've seen it my entire life," Garland told WMAR.
"There's never a time when [small business owners] don't need us to know that they're there, and to make sure we're spending our dollars with them to keep them afloat. We think it's really important to bring it here because we have a platform," Garland said.
The hotel's prior impact director wanted to support Baltimore-based business with its 'corner store' gift shop, Garland explained. As they re-launch it, the hotel will make a day of it, complete with a live DJ and drink specials.
"When everything is fleshed out, you'll actually see the name and mission and contact for all our vendors. So you'll actually be able to go to their websites and find more items," Garland said.
Products on the corner store shelf display include wallets etched with the Baltimore City map, ceramics, perfumes, and even a lip balm dubbed "Balmer" - pun fully intended.
"We went looking for a bunch of folks who we thought would be a really great representative of what we are doing here at the hotel with our community, and we found them," Garland said.
