The holiday retail season is huge, and not just for the economy as a whole. A strong fourth quarter can make or break small business owners who are trying to watch the bottom line. Throughout the retail season, we’re following three small businesses across the country to get a sense of what’s going on for them in this economy.

Patty Delgado, Hija de tu Madre

Patty Delgado runs Hija de tu Madre, a latina-focused e-commerce business based in Los Angeles, California.

“Last year we had come out with a 2019 bilingual planner, which sold out in 45 minutes. Which was great, but it would’ve been nice to sell a lot more if we would’ve had a better gauge of sales. Which is definitely a challenge we wanted to avoid this year.”

Patty Delgado, Hija de tu Madre, Nov. 20, 2019

Kristin Thalheimer Bingham, Dean’s Sweets

Kristin Thalheimer Bingham, along with husband Dean, run Dean’s Sweets in Portland, Maine.

“In 2018, we were really elbow-to-elbow in our first space. And there was kind of a bottleneck, a pretty serious bottleneck, for who was able to use what tempering machine. That’s why we got the second space, and purchased a few more tempering machines.”

Kristin Thalheimer Bingham, Dean’s Sweets Nov. 20, 2019

Gary Merriman, Fish Hawk

Gary Merriman opened the Fish Hawk, an Atlanta fly fishing store, nearly 46 years ago.

“We’ve already prepared, pretty much, for Christmas. A lot of the stuff that I order for holiday retail with some of my suppliers I actually have to order a year in advance.”

Gary Merriman, Fish Hawk Nov. 22, 2019