Infrastructure

Entrepreneurs continue to navigate a number of challenges operating their businesses, more than two years since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Small Business Majority and Start Small Think Big surveyed small business owners and managers in their networks to understand their current business conditions, how they are faring amid rising inflation, and what they need to maintain and grow their businesses over the next six months to a year.

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.  

The White House's $2 trillion proposed American Jobs Plan—an infrastructure reform plan—continues to be hotly debated on Capitol Hill, and proposals to pay for infrastructure investments via tax reforms are some of the most contested pieces of the plan. A new small business survey reveals that small businesses strongly favor key provisions of the American Jobs Plan, and they support paying for them by enacting reforms that would require wealthy corporations and individuals to pay a higher share of taxes.  

This report compiles findings from focus groups and roundtable discussions with rural small business owners and other small business stakeholders in four states, as well as the results of a national poll of rural small business owners. The report also features recommendations for policymakers and service providers to increase opportunities for rural entrepreneurs.

Small business owners are strongly opposed to the FCC’s recent move to repeal rules enforcing net neutrality, according to recent scientific opinion polling. Specifically, the poll found that 56% of small business owners oppose the repeal of the rules, with nearly 4 in 10 (39%) strongly opposed.