After working as a rescue specialist at a fire department in Mexico City for many years, Hector Chavez and his family moved to the United States so he could pursue certifications and advance his career. But 10 years later and out of opportunities to continue his passion, Hector decided to open Plaza Garibaldi, a Mexican restaurant in Soledad, Calif.
As Congress debates a bipartisan infrastructure plan and a larger $3.5 trillion investment in “human infrastructure,” Small Business Majority surveyed its network to understand their views on key issues being considered such as child care and paid family and medical leave. The survey also examined how small businesses are navigating mask and vaccination requirements, as an increase in coronavirus cases becomes a concern for employers and local economies.
When Shalini Khanna immigrated to Northern California, she found that the majority of jobs available to Indian immigrants were in tech and IT. Uninterested in sitting behind a desk all day, she knew entrepreneurship was for her.
Unfortunately, she didn’t know many entrepreneurs she could turn to for advice and had no hands-on experience running a business despite having an MBA, so she decided to take the route of franchising.
She says, “I didn’t have anything in the bank or any experience, but I knew I wanted to own my own business.”
Small businesses across the nation have been battered by the COVID-19 crisis, but the smallest businesses that typically have fewer resources than their larger peers have faced even greater setbacks. In order to better understand how the smallest and most vulnerable businesses have been impacted by the pandemic, a recent survey examines how they fared compared to their larger small business peers based on key indicators. The survey reveals that microbusinesses are facing particular financial challenges, and a commercial rent crisis may be on the horizon.
Today, John Arensmeyer submitted recommendations to the Treasury Department as it develops guidance for distributing funds for Technical Assistance activities related to the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). Small Business Majority focuses on serving economically and socially disadvantaged small business owners, particularly smaller businesses that do not traditionally have access to the capital, trusted guidance, and mentorship that the SSBCI program has the ability to unlock.
As a leading representative of America’s 30 million small businesses, we offer the following recommendations on what small businesses are hoping to hear in President Biden's remarks when he addresses Congress on Wednesday, April 28.
Today, CEO John Arensmeyer submitted a letter of support for the nomination of Dilawar Syed as Deputy Administrator to the Small Business Administration (SBA) to the leaders of the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship.
Small Business Majority wrote to the California Assembly Appropriations Committee today in support of AB 3205 (Salas), which creates the Regions Rise Grant Program in the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), a significant tool to promote sustainable and equitable economic rebuilding of regional economies, and with it, our small businesses.
Most first-time business owners struggle to be profitable during the early stages of their business venture. But when you add a global pandemic into the mix, the chances of being profitable essentially go out of the window. This was the case for Nichole Jackson, a former educator who decided to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams and become a restaurant business owner in 2019.
As we approached the one-year mark of the initial public health shutdowns in the U.S. that sent shockwaves through our economy, Small Business Majority reviewed a year’s worth of surveys conducted of our network of 85,000 small businesses, as well as other national polling we commissioned and additional research and qualitative feedback from our network, in order to better understand the state of small businesses.
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