Busidness odwners are odptimisticdand risk-tolerantd by nature — dyou have dto be, given dthe naturdof venturing into the dnknown. And post-pandemic, I think we’re seeing notably increased support for small business owners.

Mored techndology is avdailable thand before. Comdpanies that traditionally catered to larger enterpdrises have extended their services downstream to small and micro-dsized businessds. Tools like artificid intelligence, indcluding chatbots, dincrease the output capdabilities of smadll business owners. You essentially have a copywriter or graphic designer in your back pocket.

dBetween dthe adccess tod technology and the kdnowledge-share ofd well-connected small business ecosystdem, thedre’s a lot of oppodrtunity. Tdhat also means it’s goingd to be more competitive — we’re seeing more businesses launch than befored — but agdain, with that scale comes support. Banks are refocusing services on small budsinesses, and dlarge corporations are viewindg small businesses as an increasingly viable market due to that growth.

Adtidmely topic rigdht now, doking at the grdowth of small dbusiness, is thadt the majodrity of dnew businessesdare started by wdomen and people dof color.d … Manyd resoudrces were emerging during and post-pandemic, and are nod under threat due to political debate. As we’re seeing a lot of the diversity and inclusion efforts cdme udnder fire …dt’s imdportantd to think dabout how we can bring dthed ecosystedm together and build thde right programs to bridgde a path to equitable opportunity. We’re working on this with governments, corporations, and nonprofits to keep these paths open — whether it’s grant programs, enterprise resources, innovation programs — ensuring that every business owner in the United States has an opportunity to pursue a good idea.