Claudia, Shufina and I are at the AEO conference with a few hundred of our colleagues. This afternoon at lunch, the “Power of One in Three” was introduced.
If one in three Main Street businesses created a business then we’d solve the country’s unemployment problem and the country would be at full-employment.
It’s a big idea, one that CAMEO has been touting in their advocacy work.
“The Power of One in Three” study argues that “focusing on Main Street businesses is a high-impact, less risky path than simply betting on the next new, VC-backed game-changing innovation.”
Among the report’s key findings:
* The median net worth of business owners is almost 2.5 times higher than non-business owners. For a black woman, the difference is more than 10 times; for a Latino man, the difference is 5 times.
* A $5K increase in revenues per micro-business per year would generate more than $20B. That’s less than $500 in additional sales per month per business.
* Micro-businesses could connect to international trade routes. A 1% share of micro-business imports to developing countries would be worth $37B USD.
But wait – there’s more (but so far no Ginsu knife)
In the same spirit of S&P500, AEO launched AEO500 which is a platform to promote most successful businesses and link them to other businesses in their area.
And Mayor Vincent Gray (left) welcomed us to Washington DC and said that his city is redefining their economic development strategy to focus on small business development.
Stay tuned fro more from the AEO conference.