Illinois Small Business Owner Highlight

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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.

Illinois Events

Friday, June 9, 2023 | 1:00pm ET

Join Small Business Majority for our monthly briefing on the status of national policies. This month, we will be detailing the debt ceiling negotiations, how they may impact your small businesses and other federal updates that may impact your small business.

Webinar | National
Wednesday, July 12, 2023 | 10:00am CT

In today's competitive business landscape, effective advocacy is a crucial skill for small business owners to master.

Workshop | Chicago, IL

Illinois Policy

Browse our latest state-based regulatory comments and legislative testimony in this area below, or click the button to view all records.
Friday, February 24, 2023

Small Business Majority’s Illinois policy agenda outlines policies that advance and promote equitable pathways for entrepreneurship while ensuring small businesses are key to a thriving and inclusive economy. The state’s 1.2 million small businesses employ 2.5 million people (about 45% of the private workforce), with firms of fewer than 20 employees creating the largest net job gains.

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Small Business Majority’s Illinois policy agenda ensures that small business is at the center of a thriving and inclusive economy and advance policies that promote equitable pathways for entrepreneurship, with a particular emphasis on addressing systemic racism and sexism that impede economic inclusion and harm businesses owned by people of color, women and other underserved owners.

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

On March 28, Johnathon Bush, owner of Not Just Cookies provided testimony before the Illinois House Financial Institutions and Licensing Committee on HB 2234, legislation that would extend consumer protections for small business borrowers. 

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

On March 28, Small Business Majority's Illinois Director Tasha Brown testified before the Illinois House Financial Institutions and Licensing Committee on behalf of HB 2234, legislation that would enact critical protections for small business borrowers in Illinois.

Illinois Research

Published:
Wed, 01/25/2023

Small businesses in Illinois are still struggling to hire and retain a ready workforce, persistent challenges in the wake of the pandemic.

Published:
Wed, 01/25/2023

While small businesses employ nearly half (46.4%) of the private workforce in the United States, many are struggling to hire and retain a ready workforce. One viable solution to their persistent workforce challenges is the passing of Clean Slate policies, which seal and expunge certain criminal records and allow justice-impacted individuals to seek employment opportunities and entrepreneurship. Individual state analyses of small business responses in Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas found widespread support for Clean Slate policies at the state and federal level.

Published:
Tue, 08/13/2019
Open for business

Policymakers at all levels, from town councils to the halls of Capitol Hill, emphasize the challenges of small businesses as a key talking point during political debates. But new opinion polling in four states—Illinois, Missouri, Virginia and Wisconsin—reveals small businesses feel their government officials don’t actually understand their challenges, and they support a wide array of policies to address their needs, some of which might come as a surprise to their elected officials.