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It’s difficult for most small businesses to obtain a loan. Just ask Margo Strotter, owner of Ain’t She Sweet Cafe, which now has two locations–one in Bronzeville and one in Beverly. 

Sue McDonald is the owner of MP Global Corporation, a full service meeting management company in Niles, Illinois that helps clients execute an event from start to finish. MP Global opened its doors in 2001 and Sue’s husband followed her lead soon after, starting his own business in 2006. However, since the U.S.

Maricar Tinio is an example of the quintessential entrepreneur. In addition to having over fifteen years of experience in the legal industry, she is a three-time cancer survivor who has started and co-owned several businesses. Her most recent venture is Mardavis Group, Inc., a legal recruiting firm in Chicago that she launched just last year. But unfortunately her new business may come to a standstill if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is repealed.

Karin McKie’s extensive resume reads writer, actor, publicist, educator and arts administrator—a true renaissance woman. But one of her proudest titles is small business owner. Karin’s business, Tree Falls Productions, based in Chicago, has been open since the early 1990s and provides a variety of services related to Karin’s creative expertise, primarily for non-profit art organizations and theatres.

For small business owners, setting up an employer-sponsored retirement plan can be complicated and expensive. Too many small businesses don’t have the resources to create a formal retirement plan, which means entrepreneurs and their employees frequently struggle to plan for retirement. Nearly 80 percent of employees who work for a small business don’t have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

It’s not often when one’s childhood desires, life experiences, passion and education all converge into one end goal.

As the owner of No Senior Left Behind, a nonprofit organization that offers caregiving and resources to senior citizens in Granite City, Illinois, Tawanda Story struck out those four balls with one swing of a bat.

John Rood was always a natural test-taker. What dawned on him, though, while training to teach giant prep courses for graduate level exams is that this model of tutoring lacked the detail to help the average student.

Thus came the idea for Next Step Test Prep, an alternative test preparation small business that focuses on individual, one-on-one tutoring for each student. Rood found that his experience with the one-on-one format was “extremely effective.”