Boston Small Business Strategy
Our mission for the Department of Small Business is to provide micro and small businesses with the holistic, tailored support they need to successfully start, build, and grow a business in Boston.
While we seek to provide support for all micro and small businesses that come through our office, we center our work on BIPOC businesses, and businesses in historically underrepresented and underinvested neighborhoods.
In support of this mission, the Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion (OEOI) commissioned a report in collaboration with Mass Economics to provide a current-city assessment to identify the needs of Boston small businesses in order to tailor our work and bridge existing gaps.
The purpose of the report is to provide the City of Boston with a roadmap of actionable strategies to support the vitality of the city’s small businesses, while also offering comprehensive insights to support implementation and execution of current and new policies and programs to support Boston’s entrepreneurs. This report provides a rich description of Boston’s small business economy and ecosystem for use in future program and policy development. This is a re-commitment to small businesses across Boston and is intended to be used by OEOI’s Office of Small Business, as well as by other city staff and departments, the philanthropic community, private and non-profit partners looking to support small businesses in Boston, and of course, the broader small business ecosystem in the city and region.
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VIEW THE SMALL BUSINESS REPORT
Office of Small Business - Our Approach to the Work
Today, the Office of Small Business takes a holistic and tailored approach to the work of supporting small business, it is grounded in our unified 4P Framework (People/Programs/Partnerships/Policy). Detailed in the 4P graphic below, the framework in use is integrated, self-reinforcing, and sustainable. It exemplifies our objective to uplift small businesses and proactively offer resources, including information, connecting businesses to opportunities, and, at times, providing direct services.
Each day the Office of Small Business works to realize Boston’s brightest future where entrepreneurs and business owners find it easier to get answers, start and run their businesses, and get things done—seamless and efficient, ensuring that every business thrives.
Well over 80% of all Businesses in Boston are Small Businesses.
All Small Businesses: Also known as “small business entities,” these represent all individual operations that participate in legal economic activity. These encompass a variety of types, structures, and stages of businesses, including small business establishments as well as offices of individual practices (e.g., healthcare providers, professional services), businesses with no employees that represent the business owner’s primary job, and self-employed workers that typically work from home.
Active Entrepreneurs and Solopreneurs: Defined as businesses that are in the creation stage of their operation. These businesses most often have very few, if any, employees and include an individual’s primary job, self-employed individuals, and individual practitioners.
Small Business Establishments: These businesses are defined as commercialized, operating businesses that are generally accessible to the public through a virtual or physical storefront.
Scaled small businesses: These businesses are business establishments that either employ 10-49 people or generate $500,000 - $5 million in yearly revenue.
Micro-businesses: These businesses are business establishments that employ fewer than ten people and generate less than $500,000 in yearly revenue.
Goals of the Report
GOALS
Reduce Barriers to Success
Create programs and policies that are designed around and adapt to the changing needs of small businesses in Boston.
Increase Opportunities for Building Generational Wealth
Foster a small business ecosystem that is more accessible to all, striving towards Boston business ownership that more closely reflects the diversity of the City.
Create an Environment for Business to Thrive
Continue to stimulate the revitalization of the city’s neighborhoods and major commercial hubs and corridors.
Small Business in Boston - Things to know
Report Recommendations
Initial Action Based on Report Recommendations
Actions- An inter-agency working group within City Hall to increase multi-department coordination and efficiency when serving small businesses, launching in January 2025.
- Launched in 2024, COB Equitable Procurement Initiative focuses on supporting local small businesses.
Please see Strategy Report for full list of recommendations.
Recommendation: Ensure continuous resource mapping and navigation.
- Office of Small Business Support Organizations (BSOs) to hold Quarterly Convenings (starting December 2024) to support BSO coordination, information sharing, and ease of BSO access by small businesses.
- Create and maintain a comprehensive BSO directory for Small Businesses to help connect small businesses to both operational support and funding when available.
Please see Strategy Report for full list of recommendations.
Recommendation: Create a small business financial health program.
- Working with partners, the Office of Small Business will launch a series of business financial health programs in 2025 that focus on growing profits and access to capital at each stage of business growth, from founding to exiting a business.
Please see Strategy Report for full list of recommendations.
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VIEW THE SMALL BUSINESS REPORT
