Georgia Small Business Owner Highlight

Renard Beaty

Master Renard Beaty is not only a 5th-degree black belt, but he is also the owner of Kick Start Martial Arts, winner of the 2017 Wells Fargo’s Neighborhood Renovation Program grand prize and recipient of the 2019 Best of Atlanta Award in the Martial Arts School category. Despite his awards and popularity in his community, his small business is struggling just like everyone else’s.

Georgia Events

Thursday, April 25, 2024 | 3:00pm ET

Entrepreneurs and small business owners drive economic innovation through the invention of new products, technologies and ideas, which are all commonly referred to as intellectual property (IP).

Workshop | National
Thursday, May 2, 2024 | 2:00pm ET

To help prevent and combat money laundering, tax fraud and other financial crimes, a recent bipartisan law requires many companies and small businesses to report beneficial ownership information (BOI) to the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).  

Workshop | National
Wednesday, May 8, 2024 | 2:00pm ET

Since its inception more than 70 years ago, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has helped millions of small businesses across the country access the capital and resources needed to thrive and grow.

Workshop | National

Georgia Policy

Browse our latest state-based regulatory comments and legislative testimony in this area below, or click the button to view all records.
Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Small Business Majority has created a comprehensive state policy agenda to ensure entrepreneurship is at the center of a thriving and inclusive economy in Georgia. The state’s 1.2 million small businesses comprise 99.6% of all businesses in the state, and they employ 1.7 million residents—nearly half of all Georgia employees.

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

On March 19, Small Business Majority's Georgia Director, Rachel Shanklin, submitted testimony for the record before the Georgia Senate Regulated Industries Committee on HB 1339. The proposal would establish a Comprehensive Health Coverage Commission to study the critical issue of closing the Medicaid coverage gap in Georgia. 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Small Business Majority's Georgia Director, Rachel Shanklin, submitted testimony for the record in support of SB 157. The proposal will give Georgians a fair chance and help expand our state’s skilled workforce by making it easier for entrepreneurs and jobseekers to obtain occupational licenses. 

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

On January 24, Small Business Majority's Georgia Director and National Women's Entrepreneurship Director, Rachel Shanklin, testified before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee in support of the Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for Patients Act. 

Georgia Research

Published:
Wed, 04/03/2024

While small businesses employ nearly half (46.4%) of the private workforce in the United States, many are struggling to hire and retain a ready workforce. Our poll of Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas small business owners reveals strong support for legislative solutions that would remove barriers for justice-impacted individuals by making reforms to occupational licensing and debt-based driver’s license suspensions. These politically diverse small business owners believe these measures would enable employers to tap into an underutilized workforce and open up opportunities for entrepreneurship.

Published:
Thu, 03/07/2024

Small Business Majority’s new poll of Georgia small business owners reveals strong support for legislative solutions that would remove barriers for justice-impacted individuals by making reforms to occupational licensing and debt-based driver’s license suspensions. These politically diverse, and predominantly Republican-leaning, small business owners believe these measures would enable employers to tap into an underutilized workforce and open up opportunities for entrepreneurship.

Published:
Wed, 01/25/2023

While small businesses employ nearly half (46.4%) of the private workforce in the United States, many are struggling to hire and retain a ready workforce. One viable solution to their persistent workforce challenges is the passing of Clean Slate policies, which seal and expunge certain criminal records and allow justice-impacted individuals to seek employment opportunities and entrepreneurship. Individual state analyses of small business responses in Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas found widespread support for Clean Slate policies at the state and federal level.

Georgia Resources

In Georgia, 1.2 million small businesses employ nearly half of the state’s workforce. Many of these small employers want to offer robust benefits like paid and family leave because it helps them compete with bigger businesses for talent. But this benefit carries a high cost that they simply can’t afford on their own while maintaining their bottom lines.