Small businesses have experienced tremendous trauma since COVID-19 arrived and in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. As is true in so many other areas of life, our minority-owned small businesses were hit hardest.
Small businesses are vital to the future of Minneapolis.
These businesses need a major boost, and quickly. Small businesses are critically important to the economic health of our minority and immigrant communities and they facilitate cultural interconnectedness in our city. Moreover, the health of the Twin Cities area’s Fortune 500 businesses is inextricably linked to the health of our small business community. As Senator Paul Wellstone famously said, “we all do better when we all do better.”
As mayor, I am committed to facilitating a small business boom. Together, we will:
● Directly invest additional funds from emergency relief resources into our small businesses with an eye toward shared prosperity across the entire business community.
● Push to create one or more new public-private partnerships to provide low-interest loans to help small, community-based businesses recover from COVID-19 and thrive.
● Determine the extent to which we can reduce or eliminate local regulations that stand in the way of small business success.
● Work with small business leaders to ensure that city staff are properly trained regarding all aspects of running a small business in the city and the issues our small businesses face.
● Empower city staff to partner with entrepreneurs to create a “small business first” framework that enables businesses to reach their objectives.
● Create a “one-stop shop” that provides all of the tools and resources to start and maintain a business in Minneapolis.
● Use my engineering experience and international business connections to promote our city as the ideal setting for investment and business start-up.
● Establish a task force of leaders from big business, small business, and Minneapolis schools to develop cutting-edge holistic education, training, and recruiting programs that will prepare our kids for the jobs of the future and employ them right here in the jewel of the North.