By Amanda Ciccatelli, TMCnet Web Editor

Despite concerns, many small businesses have come out of last week’s Small Business Saturday on top, with better sales than expected.

CNBC recently reported that American consumers spent $5.5 billion at small businesses on Saturday, Nov. 24, according to the Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey, released by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and American Express (News - Alert). Additionally, consumer awareness of Small Business Saturday increased to 67 percent from 34 percent just two weeks ago, according to NFIB and Amex.

Small Business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, was originally created by American Express in 2010 as a strategy to improve business for small companies that do not necessarily benefit from Black Friday and Cyber Monday (News - Alert) like large businesses.

To date, more than 350 small business organizations supported the nationwide initiative with over 50 Chambers of Commerce and 60 groups organizing events and activities in support of the day. Also, there has been a social media campaign, with 3.2 million Facebook (News - Alert) users "liking" the Small Business Saturday page.

As a company that caters to small business across the U.S., Phone.com, a provider of VoIP and cloud-based telephone service specializing in small-sized businesses and home offices (SOHO), is extremely active in various small business related promotions.

Phone (News - Alert).com participated in Small Business Saturday this year and also offered special service discounts. “We actually had our best Saturday sign up day of the year!” Phone.com CEO Ari Rabban (News - Alert) told TMCnet in an exclusive interview.

Rabban believes the reason Small Business Saturday has become such a popular national shopping day is awareness since the goal of the popular shopping day is to help small retailers compete with the “big guys.”

“As a small business, we see the importance and the value of helping all types of small businesses. I do expect that awareness will keep Small Business Saturday growing in the years to come and that it will translate in growth for small business throughout the year,” he explained.

These days, it is important to recognize the importance of small business all over the U.S. Rabban continued, “Small business should be supported and corporate America is not always friendly to small establishments whether the local book store or the local hardware store.”