Shop small. Think big. That’s been our mantra from day one since Main Street Alliance expanded to Wisconsin. And we’re just getting started.
Over the past year since expanding to the Badger State we’ve gone from 0 to 120+ member small businesses, have been featured in 415 news stories in Wisconsin and have advocated for and secured over $700 million in small business grants for Main Street businesses across the state. Our members have been featured telling their story in small town papers and the NY Times, in member meetings and meetings with members of Congress.
What’s Our Goal? To build a grassroots movement of small business owners, workers and communities to fight for public investments at scale and set the market rules necessary to sustain a thriving small business economy.
You can read more about our perspective on small business needs now in a recent OP-ED in UpNorth News here. We are the small business centered alternative to destructive organizations like the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Association. It’s about time.
We are excited to share that our Wisconsin MSA Leadership Team is forming this week. 10 small business owners from across Wisconsin, representing many different kinds of businesses, backgrounds and geographies will be coming together. We look forward to working with this group to help drive our work from Bayfield to Milwaukee to Fish Creek in the new year.
And as much as we have accomplished this year with our members there is still so much to do. There are still small businesses who have been left behind since their industries were the most impacted by the pandemic or because aid programs were not designed to address their needs.
We cannot leave these small businesses behind and Main Street Alliance will fight alongside them to make sure they get the help they need.
So what will we be working on next year?
- Care Economy – Paid Family & Medical Leave and Child Care
- Tax Fairness – Both an equitable tax code for the sake of the tax code, and also to ensure we have the revenue needed for robust public investments
- Capital Access – Create new and improve existing capital access options for small business owners, especially those systematically left out of traditional options, including BIPOC and women small business owners
- Anti-monopoly – Tackle corporate concentration of power in the market and politics, which is detrimental to the growth and development of small businesses and the communities they serve
- Health Care – We need a universal health care system built on care, not profit.
In the meantime we are working to get the Build Back Better plan across the finish line. Want to join us by using your voice? You can do that here.
Want to chat more about Main Street Alliance and our plans for 2022? Sign up for a meeting post Jan 3rd here.
Want to support our work so we can do even more in 22? Become a sustaining donor here.
