This is an age old question. It ultimately depends on the person you are hiring for your small business. How much experience does the person have in a technology?
If it's over 5 years, certification is optional. You must give credit where credit is due. Software developers toil away for much more than 40 hours per week perfecting solutions. As a matter of fact, it can be quite hard to get a software developer to admit their code is "good enough". If you do the math, that's 5 years at 2,000 hours (or more) per year. Additionally, any developer with 5 years or more experience has had to learn adaptability, which will be critical in learning the processes of how your small business is run.
If it's under 5 years, I would lean towards hiring a developer who had been certified (in that technology) over one who had not. The certification shows that not only did they recognize a deficiency in their skillset that needed to be addressed, they set a goal and achieved it. Achieving certification is no easy task, just ask someone who has studied for weeks and months on end, only to fail at the first attempt. The certification will also lower your training costs because new additions to the team are fluent in the terminology and best practices.