DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — Long after the Christmas music fades, Sheryol Threewit will be hard at work.

"I tell everybody this is the last job I'll ever have," she said.

Threewit owns All Things Beautiful in Decatur. What started as a passion project, developed into a blossoming business.

"I opened it up because I like the things I sell," she said.

Small Business Saturday and the holiday shopping season provided a boost during the pandemic. But that boost isn't always enough to sustain a store throughout the entire year.

"[Small Business Saturday] just opens our doors and let's people know what we have," Threewit said. "I really need them to continue because I don't sell out on Small Business Saturday."

Credit card company American Express coined the term "Small Business Saturday" to encourage more people to shop locally around the holidays. But no matter what time of the year it is, the company estimates nearly 67 cents of every dollar a person spends stays in their community. 

"Trying to shop local on a daily basis really impacts that dollar and really impacts what we can do to give back to our community," said Mirinda Rothrock, the president of the Decatur Regional Chamber of Commerce.

But Threewit knows the most important thing is for customers to simply remember the businesses they patronized around the holidays — because those businesses will need them long after the calendar flips to 2022.

"It's just important for us to keep the lights on," Threewit said. "A lot of businesses around me have gone out of business because people forgot that they're here."