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The Small Business Boom Under the Biden-Harris Administration

Through the American Rescue Plan and the equitable implementation of emergency relief programs, President Biden and Vice President Harris fostered the strongest recovery for Main Street on record. In 2021, Americans applied to start 5.4 million new businesses—more than 20 percent higher than any previous year on record. The boom in new business creation has been

Financially Inclusive and Sustainable Tacoma WA

The policy brief was informed by research conducted with the William Factory Small Business Incubator which is one of the longest serving incubators in America. It is based in Tacoma, Washington and caters to the needs of early and growth stage entrepreneurs.

Barriers to Business

You shouldn’t need a law degree to start the small business of your dreams. But too often, entrepreneurs struggle with local regulatory burdens, finding themselves trapped by high fees, long wait times, and complex paperwork. These burdens amount to a death by a thousand cuts, unless aspiring business owners can successfully navigate them before reaching

A Real-Time Look at ‘The Great Resignation:’ January 2022

The most recent data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report showed that the United States is still in the midst of an unprecedentedly tight labor market, with both the job-quitting rate and the number of job openings across the economy at near-record levels. Yet, in December 2021 and January 2022, the U.S.

Small Business Finance FAQ February 2022

Small businesses borrow mainly for four reasons: to start a business, purchase inventory, expand,
or to strengthen the firm’s financial health. Firms choose different means of financing depending on
the intended purpose.

NCRC 2020 Home Mortgage Report: Examining Shifts During COVID-19

In this paper the National Community Reinvestment Coalition presents a broad and detailed analysis of 2020 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data. Our analysis reveals how the private or conventional mortgage lending market is failing to serve economically insecure households of color. This re-enforces the racial divide in homeownership which is a pillar of the

How Entrepreneurship Can Revitalize Local Communities

This report from Harvard Business Review discusses some of the failings of business-driven revitalization programs, and argues that to truly produce real, enduring impact, we must shift away from a focus on scaling up, and instead encourage founders to “scale deep”. This means investing not only in ventures that offer strong financial returns, but also

Does Perceived Socio-Economic Status Impact Access To Credit In The Small Business Arena?

From November 1, 2020, to December 14, 2020, NCRC conducted multi-layered matched-pair tests of 22 different financial institutions. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of socio-economic status (SES), specifically perceived education, on the interactions between race and treatment in the small business pre-application arena. SES is defined by the American Psychological