Attention Southwest Florida small business owners. The five busiest shopping days of the year are imminent.

Based on data from the National Retail Federation, more than 667,000 Fort Myers-Naples area consumers are likely to shop beginning on Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.

“The tradition of Thanksgiving weekend holiday shopping has become a five-day event with consumers spending money in stores, supporting local small businesses, and online with their mobile devices and computers,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Even as people are starting to purchase gifts earlier in the season, consumers still enjoy finding good Thanksgiving deals and passing time shopping with family and friends over the long holiday weekend.”

Based on the NRF findings, here are the number of shoppers local business owners can expect on each of these five days:

Almost 214,000 adult consumers in Southwest Florida belong to a fitness club. These memberships bring in close to $398 million in sales to local gym owners.

January is critical for the small business owners that operate gyms in the SWFL area. According to the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association, this one month alone, accounts for 10.8% of annual membership sales. New Year's resolutions are the reason for this early year spike.

To capture a larger share of the $42.9 million local consumers  will spend on gym memberships in January, requires fitness center owners to advertise. The best way to do this is on Fort Myers radio. Here's why.

Ask any Southwest Florida small business owner how to measure the success of an advertising campaign. The answer will almost always 'sales.'

According to Nielsen research, the media-element of a campaign that has the most significant effect on sales is reach. This is the number of different people exposed to the advertiser's message.

There are more ways than ever to advertise. But, which of those options has the largest reach among SWFL consumers?

Doug Schoen, an advertising professional with 35 years of experience, writes in Forbes: "You wouldn’t know it from all the media coverage focused on streaming video and streaming music, but radio actually has the most reach among American media consumers. 93% of adults listen to the radio each week as compared to 87% who watch TV, a substantive difference."

By April 15th next year, 428,000 residents of Southwest Florida will file a tax return.  More than 53% of these returns will be completed by the taxpayers themselves, either by hand or with the help of an online provider like Turbotax.

Every season, SWFL small business owners who specialize in tax preparation services lose customers to the do-it-yourself options.  This year, 199,855 local consumers will spend $38,500,000 with professionals. But, based on the average cost of services, more than $44,100,000 will stay in the wallets of the DIY crowd.

To clawback this enormous amount of money from the DIY market, SWFL tax services will need to advertise the valuable benefits of using a professional.

The best advertising option for professional tax professionals is on Fort Myers radio stations. Here's why.