Celebrating America's Small Businesses

This week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce joined the Small Business Administration (SBA) in celebrating its annual National Small Business Week, recognizing the vital contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small businesses to our neighborhoods, our communities, and our economy. This week and every day at the U.S. Chamber, we are proud to defend, promote, and help America’s job creators, community builders, and innovators.  

SBA’s annual recognition of small businesses comes at a time when many are facing ongoing challenges caused by the Delta variant, worker shortages, supply chain disruptions, and inflation. In our most recent MetLife and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index, we saw a dip in confidence and an increase in caution, with fewer employers reporting plans to invest in their businesses than last quarter. About half of small businesses also describe difficulty recruiting and hiring enough employees to fill open positions.  

Despite this pause in small business confidence, we are still seeing encouraging signs of optimism and entrepreneurship. New businesses are opening at their highest rate since the U.S. Government began tracking start-ups 17 years ago. This is especially noteworthy given that business startups took ten years to bounce back after the 2007-2009 recession.  

There is a bright future ahead for minority innovators, too. This week, the Chamber Foundation opened applications for the 2021 Coalition to Back Black Businesses grant program. Now in its second year, the Coalition will award grants and long-term resources to more than 400 Black small business owners recovering from the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

 The resilience of entrepreneurs is evident from the conversations I have with workers and business owners every day—from shop owners to online retailers to IT specialists protecting small businesses from cyber threats. The faces of free enterprise and their remarkable stories are why the Chamber hosts an annual small business awards program. This year, our Dream Big Awards received the highest number of applicants ever. We just announced the finalists, and I can’t wait to award the top honors on October 21st. 

This week, we thank our partners at SBA for hosting National Small Business Week. Most important of all, we thank America’s small business owners, who choose business as their calling, who serve their communities and our economy, and who persist through times of caution and times of growth. I am honored to lead an organization where our team wakes up every day committed to ensuring that America continues to be the best place in the world to start, run, and grow a business.