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references

1. Small business provides nearly half of private sector employment. Small Business Administration. “Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business”, August 2017. Available online. Small firms provide a unique local identify and increase community involvement. Tolbert II, Charles M. “Small, local and loyal: How firm attributes affect workers’ organizational commitment”, Baylor University, October 2014. Available online. Money spent at local businesses recirculates back into the community at more than twice the rate of national chains. Civic Economics. “Indie Impact Study Series”, 2012. Available online.
 
2. Goldman Sachs. “Progress Report on Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses: Fourth Edition”, 2018. Available online
 
3. 81% of owners haven’t worked with local government-funded small business resources eg. chamber of commerce, SCORE, SBA etc.
Fifth Third Bank. “National Small Business Survey”, April 2016. Available online. It is difficult for wiling lenders to find qualified borrowers, and vice versa. Mills, Karen Gordon and Brayden McCarthy. “The State of Small Business Lending: Innovation and Technology and the Implications For Regulations”, Harvard Business School Working Paper 17-042, 2016. Available onlineOnly 25% of owners seek advice from community leaders, 12% from financial advisors and suppliers, and 8% from incubators / accelerators. UPS and Business Insider. “2016 State of Small Business”, 2016. Available online. While online lenders and CDFI’s have the highest credit approval rate and large banks have the lowest, owners are twice as likely to have applied to a large bank (48%) than an online lender (24%), and are ten times more likely to have applied to a large bank than to a CDFI (5%). Federal Reserve Bank. “2017 Small Business Credit Survey – Report on Employer Firms”, 2017. Available online.
 
4. Thirty-three percent of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period. NFIB. “May 2018 Report: Small Business Optimism Index”, May 2018. Available online. 23% of employer firms who applied for credit did not receive any, and 54% had a financing shortfall, meaning they received less than what they applied for. Federal Reserve Bank. “2017 Small Business Credit Survey – Report on Employer Firms”, 2017. Available online. Right now resources are not, for whatever reason, getting to the right people and the right places to spur economic development—particularly in under-invested parts of the urban core. Knox, Ron. “The Hunt for an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem”, Citylab, September, 2017. Available online. Small business owners are often unaware of the many resources available to them, and struggle to navigate Boston’s currently disconnected business support environment. City of Boston Small Business Report, Page 27, March 2016. Available online.
 
5.Kugler, Maurice and Marios Michaelides, Neha Nanda, Cassandra Agbayani, “Entrepreneurship in Low-Income Areas”, page 1, IMPAQ International LLC for Small Business Administration, September 2017. Available online
 
6.Brookings Institute Hamilton Project, “Minority and Women Entrepreneurs: Building Capital, Networks, and Skills”, March 2015. Available online
 
7. Only 24% of owners report wanting their firm to be “as large as possible”, and more than 50% of owners cite lifestyle benefits such as “flexibility over schedule” or “be my own boss” as a primary reason for starting their firm. Pugsley, Benjamin Wild and Erik Hurst. “What Do Small Businesses Do?”, Brookings Papers On Economic Activity, Fall 2011. Available online. Only 33% of owners say their primary goal is to grow. The Hartford. “2015 Small Business Success Study”, 2015. Available online. 50% of owners started their business for non-financial reasons like wanting to be their own boss, tired of working for others, wanting to set their own hours, and the desire to pursue a passion. Only 12% of owners want to grow to staff larger than 50 people. Infusionsoft. “Defining and Achieving Small Business Success”, 2016. Available online. While 88% of owners report “increasing revenues” as their key business goal over the next three years, only 24% report wanting to add an establishment. Shopkeep. “2018 Shopkeep Small Business Pulse”, May 2018. Available online.
 
8. In a given year for a given category, only 7% of small business owners reported switching their solution provider, and 68% reported never switching. Haque, Naumi. “Small Business Owners Never Switch Suppliers”, CEB, October 28, 2012. Available online. Waters, Steve. “Why the Vast Majority of Small Businesses are Unreceptive to New Solutions”, SMB Intelligence, May 2018. Available online.
 
9. The overwhelming majority of small firms do not grow by adding employees from year to year or even over three year periods. Approximately 80% of small businesses do not grow at all, even over a relatively long period. Most surviving small businesses do not grow by any substantial margin – most start small and stay small. Pugsley, Benjamin Wild and Erik Hurst. “What Do Small Businesses Do?”, Brookings Papers On Economic Activity, Fall 2011. Available online. Only 22% of small businesses are planning to hire additional employees in the next 12 months. Bank of America. “Small Business Owner Report”, Spring 2018. Available online. 22% of owners are planning to hire new employees in 2018. TD Bank. “2018 Small Business Survey”, May 2018. Available online. 71% of owners expect savings from the 2017 tax policy changes, however only 14% of those plan to use those savings to hire more employees. Bank of America. “Small Business Owner Report”, Spring 2018. Available online. Seasonally adjusted net 20% (of small business owners) plan to create new jobs. NFIB. “NFIB Small Business Jobs Report”, NFIB, June 2018. Available online. Over the next 12 months 31% of small business owners expect the overall number of jobs at their company to increase, 62% expect it to stay the same, and 7% expect a decrease. Wells Fargo. “2018 Small Business Index Survey”, April 2018. Available online.