While the federal government does not provide grants for starting or growing small businesses, it does provide a myriad of services to assist entrepreneurs in pursuit of their dreams. One of the mechanisms in place to promote small business growth and economic development are Community Development Financial Institutions.
The U.S Small Business Administration supports both the Small Business Development Center Program and SCORE to provide management assistance to current and prospective small business owners. These programs offer one-stop assistance to individuals and small businesses by providing a wide variety of information and guidance in central and easily accessible branch locations.
The Recovery Capital Loans Program provides financial assistance to small business with less than 500 employees to obtain a deferred payment loan from the agency, in order to meet existing debt payments, thereby giving the business the opportunity to refocus their business strategy.
Opportunity Zones are an economic development tool that allows people to invest in distressed areas in the United States.
According to a Private Capital, Public Good report recently released at the White House from a group of A-list impact investing and social enterprise specialists, the U.S. government can do a lot to spur the growth among the impact investing and social enterprise sectors.