For more than 50 years, the Small Business Administration has recognized the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Successful small businesses are started by passion-driven entrepreneurs who seek to fulfill a unique need of the community by offering an exemplary product or service. Today, small businesses are vital for the U.S. economy.
A report by the SBA indicates that small businesses account for nearly 44 percent of economic activity in the United States, creating two-thirds of new jobs across the country.
I work for a business called Yowie Group, a small company that strives to make a big effect throughout the United States and Australia by helping children learn about wildlife conservation. We do that in a unique way. We make smarter treats that parents and caregivers can feel good about sharing with the children in their lives. In doing so we support the economy by providing jobs supporting chocolate production at a factory in New York.
Though our economic effect directly helps New York, the educational effect of the Yowie surprise-inside chocolate eggs affects families across the U.S. and Australia. Outside of the factory jobs, Yowie has a small but mighty operations team that comprises fewer than 20 people. However, it was not always this way.
Australians are passionate about wildlife conservation because of the continent’s large range of native animals, many of which are critically endangered. In the mid-’90s, two children’s book authors sought to bring awareness to the plight of endangered animals — and created the Yowie characters. “Yowie” is an Australian term meaning “sasquatch” or “big foot.” Inspired by Australian folklore, the Yowie Kingdom is a fictional magical realm free from the destructive influence of humanity.
The original six Yowie characters were created as guardians of the natural world and combated “grumpkins,” creatures that pose threats to the environment such as spark (forest fires) and ooze (polluting the environment with sludge chemicals).
In the stories, each character is a guardian for a specific wild habitat and all its animals. They strive to protect their domains from environmental threats. The characters personify the many challenges that wildlife and their habitats face today to help parents introduce these topics to children in a way they can understand.
When a large chocolate company learned of the Yowie stories, it was inspired to create the Yowie surprise-inside chocolate egg. The surprise found inside each chocolate was a buildable Australian animal toy to learn about. When the product made its debut in 1995, it was a huge hit. However, in 2000, the company making them decided to discontinue the product and Yowie went off store shelves for more than 10 years.
Then a small group of investors who believed in the brand and its mission joined to rally behind resurrecting the brand as a small business. Yowie Group is now publicly held and traded on the Australian Stock Exchange. Its mission to amplify the importance of wildlife conservation was reborn.
Today, many small businesses are still dealing with the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic exposed the vulnerability of several businesses and industries throughout the world that were forced to modify or cease operations, many of them pivoting business operations to better service customers in the new environment.
During the height of the pandemic, Yowie Group quickly stepped in to offer a breadth of relevant and helpful content to our consumers across our social channels, even creating a whole new section on our website, to support families and give back in ways that matter.
As the world heals from the effects of the pandemic and new small businesses are created and others work through changes that are keeping them afloat, supporting small businesses is more important than ever. Small businesses thrive off the support of our customers, which is why the Small Business Administration encourages people to support small brands, companies and businesses.
