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Young and successful entrepreneurs get the attention, but they are the exception, not the norm.
Patti Shoes, Station Street, Lalor, 2020.
Courtesy of David Wadelton and M.33
A new book of photographs is a reminder of a slower and simpler way of living — before chain stores, throwaway clothing and online retail.
Black-owned businesses have been shuttered at a higher rate during the pandemic.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
With fewer funds to fall back on, minority-owned enterprises have struggled in the recession. To make things worse, many are in sectors that have been badly hit by lockdowns.
Doug Peters/PA
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected businesses owned by Black, Asian and minority ethnic people. Here’s how we can help them bounce back.
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The new rules will allow insolvent small businesses to keep trading rather than go straight into administration.
James Ross/AAP
Helping small businesses survive isn’t all about tax breaks, red tape and industrial relations changes. Here are four other things governments can do.
COVID-19 has further emphasised the need for a more diverse food system, in which SMEs play a key role.
South Africa’s food system is dominated by big firms, leaving small businesses to supply localised and under-served markets, and provide rural employment. It needs to be inclusive and diverse.
David Crosling/AAP
Without policies to address the core needs of small business, Victoria’s second wave of restrictions will be a killer blow.
Trump addresses the Paycheck Protection Program at a meeting.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The government wants to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the definition of “small” is still pretty big.
The main street of Cobargo, NSW, Wednesday, January 1, 2020.
Sean Davey/AAP
Small businesses are disproportionately affected by natural disasters. To improve community resilience, we need to help them ‘build back better’.
Independent bookstores are places where culture is collected and disseminated. The gentrification of city centres makes their existence increasingly precarious.
Kévin Langlais on Unsplash, CC BY-NC
The demands of gentrification in some neighbourhoods are proving deadly for some independent businesses, including local bookstores, often forcing them to close.
Taking a loan has never been easier thanks to the proliferation of mobile lending platforms.
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Mobile loan platforms have given Kenyans access to easy loans, but they come at a high price.
Social grants provide an important cushion amid poverty in South Africa.
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Government policies need to acknowledge individual agency as a mechanism for change, while reducing barriers to income-producing activities.
Ten years ago, almost a third of self-employed people in the UK contributed to pension schemes. That figure has dropped dramatically.
Most small and medium-sized companies in Australia have no written plan for future growth.
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Simply providing more money will not accelerate the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Store closures in Swansea.
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It’s not just affecting areas in post-industrial decline – retail spaces are closing and losing value across England and Wales.
Perhaps one day Humboldt pot will be as famous as Bordeaux wine.
AP Photo/Richard Vogel
About two-thirds of Americans now live in states where marijuana is legal for medicinal or recreational purposes, leading some to worry corporate and Wall Street interests will take over the industry.
Informal trading in Fordsburg, Johannesburg.
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South Africa needs to rethink the role of the informal economy as it mulls over ideas to beat joblessness.
Doomed to fail?
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In almost every city, consumer demand and business diversity had a big role to play.
Lucie Lang/Shutterstock.
Councils are facing their own revenue crisis – and local businesses are paying the price.