We’re pleased to announce the release of the Center for an Urban Future report, “Small Business Success: A blueprint for turning more of New York City’s small businesses into medium-sized and large businesses.” One of our principals, Mark Foggin, was the report’s lead author.
Over the last 13 years, the bulk of the growth in new businesses in New York has been in firms with fewer than five employees. But while a number of tech startups have experienced meteoric growth, the vast majority of small businesses in the city have never expand in a meaningful way. It’s not hard to fathom why most small businesses in the city stay small—if they survive at all. New York is one of the most expensive places to do business, and competition is fierce.
Yet, turning more of the city’s very small businesses into even modestly larger businesses is one of New York’s greatest opportunities for economic and employment growth in the next several years. If just one-third of the city’s 165,000 microbusinesses added one new employee, it would mean 55,000 additional jobs citywide.
The report provides case studies of small businesses who have succeeded in growing in recent years, as well as a blueprint of specific recommendations for what the de Blasio administration—as well as borough-wide economic development organizations, small business assistance groups and micro-enterprise organizations—could do to help more of the city’s small businesses grow to the next level.