Facing a historic pandemic with accelerating impacts in regions throughout the U.S., communities are focused increasingly on the cornerstone of their economic vitality: startups and small businesses. Even as we’ve built our regional economies on a foundation of small, locally owned businesses, those entrepreneurial ventures are at greater risk than ever before.
To address the crisis threatening our entrepreneurs and their businesses, one of the nation’s leading entrepreneurial support organizations, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, recently launched the Start Us Up coalition and its first initiative: America’s New Business Plan. As presented on the Start Us Up website, the coalition is a diverse mix of groups and organizations working to level the playing field for entrepreneurs in America. The coalition spans the entire nation and includes entrepreneurship support organizations, nonprofits, university centers, and more.
America’s New Business Plan is a nonpartisan policy roadmap to support entrepreneurs, with recommendations for federal, state, and local government. The plan was developed to provide policymakers and other community leaders with research-based solutions to overcoming the problems faced by entrepreneurs that prohibit them from starting and growing their business. Plan recommendations are broken into four pillars:
· Opportunity: A Level Playing Field and Less Red Tape
· Funding: Equal Access to the Right Kind of Capital Everywhere
· Knowledge: The Know-How to Start a Business
· Support: The Ability for All to Take Risks
Here’s how you can learn more about Start Us Up and America’s New Business Plan:
· Policymakers and other community leaders are encouraged to read America’s New Business Plan and identify new opportunities to support entrepreneurs in their regions.
· Organizations are encouraged to apply to join the Start Us Up coalition, where they will have access to resources that help them engage community leaders and inspire change regionally.
Individuals are encouraged to sign up for the newsletter and follow Start Us Up on social media.
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