How to support small business in your community

Since last May’s National Small Business Week, California Life is talking about actionable steps community leaders can take to support entrepreneurship in your neighborhood.

Stacy Cline, GoDaddy Senior Director of Corporate Sustainability, joins us with some ideas and insight.

Cline shares that, at GoDaddy, they are relentless advocates for inclusive entrepreneurship, in which they believe that anyone- no matter their age, race, gender, or socioeconomic background- should have the opportunity to pursue their independent venture.

That’s why they created Empower by GoDaddy– with the goal of making inclusive entrepreneurship possible.

Through this program, GoDaddy partners with local non-profits all over the world to reach those who otherwise wouldn’t have access to resources or technical assistance.

They use their knowledge base of website building and years of supporting small business owners to support all entrepreneurs no matter their circumstances.

When it comes to what community leaders and policy makers can do to support local small businesses, Cline says it comes down to allocating funds for entrepreneurs and creating programs and services to support them.

According to GoDaddy’s research initiative- Venture Forward– policy areas that might support more local small businesses, include:

access to capital
skills training
broadband adoption
flexible employee benefits.

Although local policy makers can’t solve every challenge for small business owners, they can be a powerful voice in advocating for their needs.

This year marks five years since the launch of Empower, which has served over 5,000 entrepreneurs.

They currently have 19 partners running programming across the U.S., Europe, and Canada.

Our goal is to serve 10,000 entrepreneurs by the end of 2022.
Stacy Cline, GoDaddy Senior Director of Corporate Sustainability

As they approach their fifth year, they want community leaders to recognize the direct impact that small businesses make.

From creating more economic opportunities for themselves, to enabling more job growth locally, these businesses are crucial to community resilience.

For more information and to learn more, you can visit godaddyforgood.com.