Small Business Majority is enacting a comprehensive state policy agenda to ensure entrepreneurship is recognized as the lifeforce of a thriving and inclusive economy in California. Our state’s 4.1 million small businesses employ 7.5 million people, which amounts to nearly half of the private workforce.
Small Business Majority’s Illinois policy agenda outlines policies that advance and promote equitable pathways for entrepreneurship while centering small businesses as the key to a thriving and inclusive economy. The state’s 1.3 million small businesses employ 2.4 million people (about 44.1% of the private workforce), with firms without employees making up 80% of all owned businesses. Illinois small business owners are navigating workforce shortages, a childcare crisis and the end of a number of pandemic era programs that support entrepreneurship.
Small Business Majority has created a comprehensive state policy agenda to ensure entrepreneurship is at the center of a thriving and inclusive economy in Colorado. The state’s nearly 690,000 small businesses employ 1.2 million people, accounting for 99.5% of all businesses in Colorado.
Virginia is home to more than 800,000 small businesses, employing 1.6 million people and accounting for 99.5% of all businesses in Virginia. Small Business Majority has created a comprehensive state policy agenda to ensure small business ownership and entrepreneurship are at the center of a robust, equitable, and competitive economy for the Commonwealth.
On March 15, Small Business Majority network members, alongside other small business owners and advocates, attended the White House’s inaugural Regional Small Business Summit. The entrepreneurs met with U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman and other Biden-Harris administration officials to discuss how to help Main Street thrive.
On February 13, 2024, California Policy Director Bianca Blomquist testified before the Assembly Committee On Jobs, Economic Development and The Economy and Budget Subcommittee No. 5 to demonstrate the importance of equitable distribution of SSBCI dollars, and encourage the state’s continued investment in diverse technical assistance resources.
With a master’s degree in computer science, another master’s degree in information systems and an interdisciplinary PhD, Lisa Kaczmarczyk never planned on becoming an entrepreneur. After working in the tech industry as a developer, she transitioned into academia as a university faculty member teaching computer science where she also gained experience obtaining grants from the National Science Foundation. Lisa thought she would be doing this type of work forever.
Sisters Lakila Bowden and Kamille Richardson are reframing disability and disproving myths that providing accommodations for differently abled employees is expensive and burdensome to businesses through their consulting company, iSee Technologies.
On September 26 and 27, Small Business Majority hosted an advocacy fly-in event, “Small Business Speaks: Two Days in Washington with Small Business Majority.” Nearly 30 entrepreneurs from the organization’s national and state Small Business Councils attended the event to build community and ensure that federal policymakers heard the true voice of small business.
On July 29, Small Business Majority co-hosted the Shop Inland Empire Pop-Up Market with the Inland Empire Regional Chamber of Commerce in San Bernardino, Calif. Pop-up markets are a unique and emerging venue for hopeful entrepreneurs to launch their small business dreams. As commercial rent costs continue to rise and workforce shortages pose challenges to small businesses, pop-up spaces and marketplaces offer a low-cost entry point for small business owners to test their products and market their business to community members.
Copyright © 2006-2024 Small Business Majority, All rights reserved. Small Business Majority is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization.