Ensuring Recovery for All

by Maria S. Salinas

Eliminating barriers and maximizing access to opportunity is at the core of our work at the Chamber in support of our region’s small business community. In Los Angeles County alone, 93% of businesses have fewer than 20 employees in a community with the highest concentration of women and minority owned businesses in the country. Two years ago, we recognized these statistics and consolidated our work in the small business space by establishing the Chamber’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation Department (E&I). E&I has since been crucial in utilizing the Chamber’s resources to support small business owners, entrepreneurs, and start-ups, and in strengthening our own capacity to support the small business ecosystem.

The Chamber’s approach to maximizing opportunity also includes public policy analysis to ensure that small businesses and start-ups can grow and continue to create the jobs that lead our economic recovery. Over the last year, we broadened our outreach through coalitions, partnerships, and strategic alliances to support the diverse small business enterprises of all sizes as they struggled to keep the doors open.

Entrepreneurship starts with a dream, and it’s our goal to help keep those dreams alive. The Chamber’s E&I team responded to COVID-19 with Small Business Strong, empowering small business owners with the tools to navigate the pandemic. We also piloted a contracting training program with the support of a broad coalition committed to inclusive procurement called OneLA Inclusive Procurement, which included over 70 small businesses who represent the diversity of small business in L.A. With one-on-one advising, in-depth training, matchmaking, and public and private agencies committed to inclusive procurement, the first cohort was able to secure over $10 million in contract awards.

Collaboration and partnerships are key to our work in serving small businesses. In that vein, this month we launched a strategic alliance with the U.S. Small Business Administration, an opportunity to collaborate around resources available to small businesses and start-ups. The Chamber is fully committed to the small, local, and diverse business community of the L.A. region. With this support, we can change the economic model of small business for the better as we work toward an equitable economic recovery.

Learn more about how the Chamber’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department helps our small business community here.