Entrepreneurship

Since opening his market 10 years ago, Alap Vora is proud to say 80% of his employees from his opening day are still working for him, and his business boasts an overall employee retention rate of more than 70%. These numbers are virtually unheard of for hourly-wage jobs in Brooklyn, N.Y., but Alap’s personal approach to business may have something to do with it.

In celebration of National Women’s Small Business Month, we co-hosted a Twitter chat with Women's Business Development Center (WBDC), Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF) and CDC Small Business Finance to share resources and advice with women small business owners. 

While many 13-year-olds dream of becoming firefighters or football players, 13-year-old Johnathon Bush not only dreamed of being an entrepreneur but was already becoming one. While growing up in Toledo, Ohio, he realized the only way he could make money at a young age was through entrepreneurship, so he started baking cookies and selling them to friends and family. But, his bake sales evolved into something bigger than his middle school self could have expected. 

In October we celebrate National Women’s Small Business Month by sharing resources for small business owners and women’s stories of entrepreneurship. This year, we asked a panel of experts about their personal and professional experiences with women’s entrepreneurship. 

When her brother was first deployed to Iraq, Candy Alford embroidered every piece of clothing he owned, from his socks to his washcloths, with his name so his things wouldn’t get misplaced in the group laundry. Not only were the name tags practical, but they garnered quite a few compliments from her brother’s fellow pilots, and he suggested she turn her hobby into a business.

When Andrew McDowell set out to open his small business, he wanted to address a prominent issue he was seeing in his community—food deserts.

South Los Angeles is riddled with food deserts, meaning that many neighborhoods do not have access to healthy, affordable food within a reasonable distance from their homes, leading to high rates of diabetes and other health problems. 

This post originally appeared on Venturize.org

National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 through October 15, and it’s the perfect time to celebrate the contributions of Hispanic small business owners to our nation’s economy and discuss how we can help them thrive and grow their businesses.

Every year, Univision hosts POSiBLE LA, a special event in Los Angeles, for Latino entrepreneurs and small business owners to come together and learn about the resources available to help them grow and thrive as business owners. This year we’re sharing a recap of the event and some key takeaways for Latino entrepreneurs. 
 

Small Business Majority’s Outreach Team advocates for entrepreneurs on two fronts: It supports policies that would benefit small firms, and it offers workshops and events that help small business owners grow their companies. We’re sitting down with members of our Outreach Team to provide an introduction and let small business owners know how our team members can assist them.

This week we are spotlighting Claudia Moreno, Small Business Majority’s Southern California Outreach Manager.

Cellie Mayol’s journey from CFO to entrepreneur was by no means traditional, but now she says she wouldn’t have it any other way. The Miami-based small business owner and non-profit founder started her path on the straight and narrow with a degree in Finance and International Business Management. After graduation, she started her career as an accountant and worked her way up to CFO. But, while things were going great for Cellie at work, her life at home was tremendously difficult due to an abusive marriage. Her home life began to affect her work and unfortunately Cellie was let go from her job. With no income and a young daughter to feed, she turned to selling drugs to make ends meet.