NASHVILLE -- This weekend's sales tax holiday on clothes, school supplies, and computers will offer a much-needed lift to small businesses across the state, said Jim Brown, state director of NFIB, the nation's leading small business advocacy organization. The sales tax holiday is July 26-28.

"Back-to-school sales already put people in the mood to shop," Brown said. "The sales tax holiday makes it more of an event and helps people stretch a dollar."

This year's sales tax holiday comes at a time when small-business optimism has declined. The widely-followed NFIB Small Business Optimism Index dipped 1.7 points last month to 103.3, according to the latest NFIB Small Business Economic Trends report. State-specific data is unavailable. Overall, although small business optimism remains near historic levels, sales expectations and profits declined in June as uncertainty increased to levels not seen in over two years.

"We hope that people will do their back-to-school shopping this weekend at small, locally-owned businesses," Brown said. "Small business is the engine that drives Tennessee's economy, so when you help small businesses, you help everybody."

To learn more about NFIB in Tennessee, visit www.NFIB.com/TN and follow @NFIB_TN on Twitter.

About NFIB

For more than 75 years, NFIB has been the voice of small business, advocating on behalf of America's small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit NFIB.com.