Microbusinesses are businesses with less than 10 employees. Microbusinesses make up 92% of U.S. businesses and are an economic lifeline, particularly for people of color. They generate 41.3 million jobs and $5 trillion in economic impact (Association for Enterprise Opportunity, 2019). BIPOC microbusiness owners in particular report starting their business to contribute to their community (GoDaddy, 2023). Yet, learning to use digital technologies, such as creating a website and managing social media, is listed as the top challenge of microbusiness owners (GoDaddy, 2023). There is a widening gap in the use of digital technologies between under-resourced microbusinesses and higher-resourced larger businesses. This has long-term consequences for profitability and community development.

In 2021, the Infrastructure Jobs Act was signed into law, which commits to investing $65 billion in broadband development (The White House, 2021). However, building digital capacity among microbusinesses will require more than just providing broadband access; it will also involve additional supports to facilitate the adoption and sustained use of technologies that help businesses thrive. Under-resourced microbusiness owners have less flexible schedules and have less access to transportation needed to attend technology training (Avle and Hui et al. 2019). Even though microbusiness owners are offered workshops and consultations on digital engagement (e.g. how to make a website), these materials are not tailored enough to be actionable for businesses with limited digital capacity. Programs that support free one-on-one tech support are widely used and helpful for small business owners (Hui et al. 2023).

Options for Policymakers

Support programs that provide free or low-cost one-on-one assistance for digital engagement:

• Fund and support programs that already do this, such as the Community Tech Workers (Hui et al. 2023) and Digital Navigators, and the development of similarly supportive programs.
• Train local residents as technology support personnel to increase trust in tech among microbusiness owners while growing local assets via workforce development (e.g. Community Tech Worker program does this).

Support hiring of reduced-cost tech consultants for small businesses:

• Small businesses rarely have additional funds to hire tech support personnel. Providing additional funding or tax incentives to hire tech support staff or attend training could motivate small businesses to become more digitally literate.

Encourage digital platforms to support digital engagement in under-resourced communities:

• Digital platforms (e.g. Meta, Google) could be encouraged to help fund existing local digital training or directly provide training about their platform for small business owners in under-resourced communities.
• Digital platforms could be incentivized to provide more accessible, free documentation of how to use these platforms for businesses.
• Digital platforms could be incentivized to attend community meetings with under-resourced business owners to help build trust and allow for Q&A.

Increase digital engagement training for education programs that support entrepreneurs:

• Digital skills for entrepreneurship, such as using point-of-sale systems, inventory management systems, and social media, could be taught in schools that teach entrepreneurship classes.
• However, microbusiness owners do not typically have formal business training, so they might lack access to this resource.

Additional Resources

1. Association for Enterprise Opportunity. 2019. The Economic Impact of Microbusiness In the United States.
2. Avle, S.*, Hui, J.*, Lindtner, S., & Dillahunt, T. (2019). Additional labors of the entrepreneurial self. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 3(CSCW), 1-24. (*Contributed equally)
3. GoDaddy. (2023). GoDaddy Venture Forward Report.
4. Hui, J., Seefeldt, K., Baer, C., Sanifu, L., Jackson, A., & Dillahunt, T. R. (2023). Community Tech Workers: Scaffolding Digital Engagement Among Underserved Minority Businesses. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 7(CSCW2), 1-25.
5. https://www.detroitmeansbusiness.org/digitalhub
6. https://digitalus.org/digital-navigators/