The de Blasio administration is taking steps to provide greater assistance to immigrant entrepreneurs in New York City. With almost half of the small business in New York City being owned by immigrants, this is a positive step that could greatly benefit those business owners and the rest of the city.
The New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) has developed a new guide as part of the city’s Immigrant Business Initiative to help immigrant entrepreneurs navigate the wide array of obstacles and issues that can stand between them and success as a business owner.
The guide is titled: Building Your Business in New York City: A Guide for Immigrant Entrepreneurs. Some of the issues it offers assistance with include:
- Rights as an immigrant New Yorker
- Personal and business financial planning
- Commercial space and lease considerations
- Staying compliant with business regulations
- Technology tools and strategies
- Identifying market needs, including opportunities to sell to government
This new guide is available in six different languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean and Bengali.
Helping Immigrant Entrepreneurs Helps Us All
With immigrant entrepreneurs making up 48 percent of the small business community, any help we can provide to them to help them succeed helps the community overall through job creation and other benefits.
Beyond the guide, there is also on-on-one counseling available for small business owners and entrepreneurs via partners such as:
- Business Outreach Center Network
- Brooklyn Public Library
- Renaissance Economic Development Corporation
- Shorefront YM-YWHA
- Sapna NYC
Any developments that help immigrant business owners and entrepreneurs are always welcome. But, when difficult situations arise, it is always wise to secure experienced legal representation that understands commercial law.