Blog
What Five Small Business Owners Learned About Where AI Belongs
Michael Quinn spent somewhere between ten and twenty hours working out the profitability of a hundred customer accounts. Claude did it in half an hour. He's one of five owners who told us where AI earns its place in their business, and where they won't let it near.
What Rising Costs Look Like Inside Five Small Businesses
What rising costs actually look like from inside five small businesses. Tariffs, taxes, suppliers who serve bigger buyers first, and customers with less to spend — and what owners do when none of it is theirs to negotiate.
Pulse Check! | The Business of Community Building | Jeanette Nigro, Perch Advisors
Jeanette Nigro on building community through business. How mission-driven strategy serves overlooked neighborhoods and why durability matters more than growth.
What Small Businesses Are Holding Up: Community
Small Businesses Pay the Highest Price for a Fragmented Field
Pulse Check! — From Sweeping Floors to Running the Factory — Mike Quinn, Acorn Products Corporation
Mike Quinn started at Acorn Products Corporation sweeping floors as a teenager. Now he's preparing to lead his family's Mohawk Valley manufacturing company into its next generation. He joins Zahra Amanpour, founder and CEO of Main Street Assembly, to talk about AI on the shop floor, succession in an industry where most owners have no plan, and what taxes and supply chains really mean for the small manufacturers holding American communities together.
Witnessing Economic Justice
Pulse Check! with Terrell Dominick: Building Community, Resilience, and a Fashion Brand with Purpose
Pulse Check! with Dr. Sarosh Cooper: Mental Health, Entrepreneurship, and the Courage to Build Something Meaningful
Meet Meadow Propsom, the Founder of Silvia Sol
Founded by Meadow Propsom while still in college, Silvia Sol is a vintage-inspired womenswear brand handcrafted in small batches at a family-run factory in Colombia and shipped to customers around the world — rooted in sustainability, individuality, and pieces built to live in your closet for years, not seasons. Meadow shares what it's really like to build a global brand as a young woman founder in the U.S. — navigating political and economic volatility, leaning on community, and figuring out where AI fits (and where it doesn't).
Meet “Coach Alex” Lalaoui, the founder of The Soccer Learning Center
Coach Alex started his journey in Morocco as a young professional soccer player and turned that passion into a business in America that’s been going strong for 24 years and counting.
Being a small business owner in America takes a level of work ethic, sacrifice, and resilience most people never see up close. Being an immigrant business owner is even harder, bringing additional challenges and obstacles at every stage of the journey.
And yet, more than 3 million businesses in this country are owned by immigrants, playing a disproportionately large role in American entrepreneurship. More than half of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Immigrant entrepreneurs help drive innovation, create jobs, strengthen communities, and contribute enormously to the economic fabric of this country.
So why don’t we hear more about that story?
That’s why Main Street Assembly is excited to introduce our first Pulse Check guest: Coach Alex Lalaoui, founder of The Soccer Learning Center.
When you hear him talk about his mission and his unwavering commitment to the kids and families he serves it’s a powerful reminder of what’s possible when passion meets perseverance.
Some things are worth striving for.
#SmallBusinessMonth #Entrepreneurship #ImmigrantEntrepreneurs #SmallBusiness #MainStreet #PulseCheck
Introducing - Pulse Check - a series of conversations with small businesses from across the country
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Small Business Support Programs: A Guide for Communities
How Small Businesses Benefit from Workforce Development Programs
What Is Economic Development Consulting? (And How It Helps Communities Grow)
What Is an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem? (And Why It Matters for Your Community)
Main Street Is Bigger Than a Street
She Builds: Celebrating How Far We've Come and Recommitting to the Work Ahead
Women own nearly 40% of all businesses in the United States — and they're growing faster, reinvesting more, and building more inclusive workplaces than ever before. But the gaps in revenue, capital access, and opportunity remain stubbornly wide. This International Women’s Day, we're celebrating the progress and recommitting to the work.
Why Small Business AI Adoption Matters for All of Us
When small businesses adopt AI intentionally, they don’t just streamline tasks—they create more jobs, better jobs, and stronger communities.
At Main Street Assembly, we’ve seen this momentum firsthand, from rural manufacturers to NYC retailers. With the right tools and support, AI becomes a growth engine for small businesses—and for the economy at large.