Episode 14
Finding the Hidden Entrepreneurs: How SmartStart Navigator Is Turning Microbusinesses into Main Street Revivals
In this episode of Breaking Down Barriers, David sits down with Marci Goodwin, co-founder of SmartStart Business Development and creator of the SmartStart Navigator, to talk about the "hidden entrepreneurs" quietly reshaping small-town economies across the country.
Marci shares how a SaaS platform originally built for high-growth tech startups found its real audience in microbusinesses—the makers, side-hustlers, and mom-and-pop owners who make up the vast majority of U.S. businesses but rarely walk through the doors of an SBDC or chamber of commerce. She and David dig into why these owner-operated businesses (fewer than 10 employees, many with just one) are the true engine of local economic activity, especially as rural Main Streets lose their traditional employer businesses.
The conversation covers a lot of ground: how SmartStart's bootstrapped, community-embedded model works; the baby-steps approach to getting microbusinesses "bankable"; real stories of downtown revitalization sparked by a single entrepreneur pulling others up behind her; and why traditional KPIs like jobs created and tax revenue don't capture the real impact of this work. Marci introduces the concept of KIIs—Key Impact Indicators—as a better way to measure success before the traditional metrics ever show up.
In this episode:
- Why so many U.S. businesses are microbusinesses, and why that matters
- How SmartStart Navigator helps communities find entrepreneurs who don't yet see themselves that way
- The customer-development-first approach to getting a business "bank ready"
- Two Main Street revival stories—from a single-storefront herbalist to a six-vendor maker community
- Why traditional KPIs fail microbusinesses, and what Key Impact Indicators (KIIs) look like instead
- Advice for the next generation of economic development practitioners: get out from behind the desk
Connect with Marci Goodwin:
