Small business needs ‘never change,’ regardless of who occupies the White House: Former Biden adviser
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As President Trump’s administration begins to take effect, many marginalized groups are nervous about what this means for them. Within 24 hours of taking office, President Trump has already signed an executive order revoking federal DEI guidelines and another attacking transgender and other LGBTQ+ people. Could small business owners — and marginalized entrepreneurs — face issues running their small businesses under this new administration?
Though many are preparing for a bleak four years, former director of public affairs and senior adviser for the Biden administration Jonathan Lovitz isn’t worried about small entrepreneurs.
“Regardless of whoever’s in the White House or statehouses around the country, the universal truth of what small business needs never changes: access to capital, access to opportunity, and room to grow,” he said (see video above or podcast link below).
Lovitz argued that despite the current political tension, “everyone on all sides of the aisle agrees” that small businesses are crucial to the US economy. Small businesses make up 99.9% of all firms in the US and are the country’s “most important job creator.”
“If there was one lesson I have learned in working with mayors and governors and now members of the House and Senate, red or blue, everybody sees green,” Lovitz said to co-hosts and husbands David & John Auten-Schneider on Living Not So Fabulously. “If we can meet in the middle on an economic outcome, we can work through our political and ideological differences.”
Lovitz said that though support from the federal government for underrepresented communities may not be as robust, local and state governments have begun stepping in to offer new initiatives and support business owners.
“I think what’s really exciting now too is, as people are concerned about what might be happening at the national Washington level, we’re seeing so much energy be refocused into state and, even more importantly, local economic development opportunities for small business owners,” he said.
Lovitz named governors like Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, who signed an executive order in 2023 to prioritize small and minority-owned businesses when allocating government contracts.
“I think there was never a bad time to be a small business owner in the United States, but particularly in these moments when we might feel extra pressure, sociological pressure, political pressure, community pressure, this is a great time to be reminded of why we’ve always survived, particularly as LGBT business owners,” he said.
