This Small Business Saturday local-based businesses in the D.C. region say they need your help now more than ever.

Jennifer Newcomb opened a unique paint night-type event business called Reclaimed By You on Main Street in Ellicott City, Maryland, in 2019. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit the area in March, in-person events had to stop.

“Those are exactly the kinds of things that we cannot be doing safely right now,” said Newcomb.

Like many small businesses dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, she had to take her in-person business online.

“We had to figure out how to switch to online offerings and virtual events and everything really fast,” said Newcomb.

Newcomb said she views Small Business Saturday as an opportunity for the community to rally behind those local-based businesses struggling to stay open.

“Small business owners have lost a lot of income and they don’t have a ton of resources or reserves so they need that. They need people to shop and come here and help them keep their doors open,” said Newcomb.

Business owners located on Main Street in Ellicott City are not only dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. They’re still dealing with the impact of two floods in 2016 and again in 2018.

“Ellicott City Main Street struggled before for people to understand that we’re open and we’re here because of the flooding and now with COVID, I think it’s even a little bit more difficult,” said Newcomb.

She put together create-your-own ornament kits that can be picked up in store or be shipped to customers for the holidays. Newcomb said it has been hard to stay open, but she’s hoping Small Business Saturday helps.

‘We didn’t used to sell anything but paints online and we stopped even selling those and we had to figure out in March how to get crafts into a format that we could actually send to someone and they didn’t need any of the extra tools and things that we had,” said Newcomb.