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Strive Innovation Fund winners aim to reduce plastic waste and promote inclusion with a focus on small shops in emerging markets.

How small merchants can help drive sustainable consumption

How Small Merchants Can Help Drive Sustainable Consumption

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The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a heavy blow to small businesses, but a silver lining emerged amidst the shuttering of storefronts: a clearer understanding of the types of support small businesses need to survive, grow and compete in today’s digital economy

The secret ingredients to thriving small businesses

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As Americans are bracing for the health fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak, the nation’s Main Street businesses are fighting for their survival. Salon owners, event planners, shopkeepers and restaurants are being forced to make hard choices—pay their bills or their employees—and the workers who rely on them for their livelihoods face prolonged economic hardship.

By: <a href="https://www.mastercardcenter.org/our-team/sandy-fernandez">Sandy Fernandez</a> and <a href="https://www.mastercardcenter.org/our-team/avni-patel">Avni Patel</a>
As Americans are bracing for the health fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak, the nation’s Main Street businesses are fighting for their survival. Salon owners, event planners, shopkeepers and restaurants are being forced to make hard choices—pay their bills or their employees—and the <a href="https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/2018-Small-Business-Profiles-US.pdf" target="_blank">workers</a> who rely on them for their livelihoods face prolonged economic hardship.
Why saving small businesses matters
Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy.&nbsp;Under the most expansive definition, small businesses account for <a href="https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/2018-Small-Business-Profiles-US.pdf" target="_blank">nearly half</a> of the nation’s employees and almost 65 percent of new jobs created. Owning a small business is also associated with faster wealth-building. Since 1990, families in which the head of the household was self-employed—the majority of whom owned small businesses­—had a median net worth <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm" target="_blank">four times</a> that, on average, of households in which the head worked for someone else.

Saving Main Street in the Wake of COVID-19