Lawmakers Must Support North Carolina Small Businesses That are Falling Behind

As a serial entrepreneur who has started and exited multiple small businesses since college, I know how hard it is for small firms to compete with large corporations. The challenges I’ve experienced impact everything from competing for contracts to offering strong employee compensation packages, and unfortunately these problems are not ones I can overcome without more support from North Carolina lawmakers.

One of my current companies offers trash removal services for apartment complexes, and while it’s profitable, there are also significant barriers to success. In this industry, most service contracts are multi-year and are put in place at a regional or national level. When a local complex is managed by a large, national firm they typically contract trash services with another large, national firm. So even when a new apartment complex opens in Charlotte or most any other city, that complex often has an existing relationship with a large trash removal vendor meaning a small business like mine is late to the party. In some cases, these trash removal deals are done behind the scenes without soliciting multiple bids. That puts small businesses at a disadvantage.

Despite those structural challenges, I still have a successful business. This is thanks in large part to three excellent employees whom I want to retain as long as possible. The problem is, as a small business owner it’s very difficult to offer them quality benefits like paid family and medical leave. Most North Carolina small businesses are in a similar position – we want to offer robust benefits to our employees because we care about them and because we want them to stay with us. But we have little hope of competing with deep-pocketed large businesses until North Carolina creates a state-run paid leave program.

Unfortunately, fair competition and access to benefits aren’t my only concerns as an entrepreneur. Although my labor-based business didn’t require a large capital investment to get off the ground, if I ever do need money for expansion it will be difficult to get the financial support I need. Small Business Majority’s research found that among entrepreneurs who pursued funding for their business, just 36% secured a loan of any size with most receiving $50,000 or less. Nearly one-quarter (24%) reported that the funding they received was insufficient to meet their needs. As a result of the challenges many small businesses have when trying to secure funding from traditional banks, entrepreneurs are turning increasingly to online lenders. The 2025 Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey found that the share of small businesses applying for funding through online lenders has grown every year since 2020, from 17 percent that year to 29 percent by 2025. Although online banks are not inherently harmful to small businesses, the space in which they operate is not well regulated. Unlike commercial loans, which are required to include a transparent disclosure of their true cost – including APR — small business loans often disguise the full cost by classifying what is really APR as “fees.” The result is loans that might appear to be a lifeline for a struggling small business actually have the power to destroy that business in a matter of months or even weeks due to APR that can be as high as 1000% or more. North Carolina can help prevent this type of predatory lending product by passing legislation that would require clear disclosures, including and most importantly APR, in small business loans.

With the 2026 North Carolina legislative session getting underway, I encourage lawmakers to enact a small business friendly agenda to ensure that small business ownership and entrepreneurship are at the center of a robust, equitable and competitive state economy. Laws that empower entrepreneurs, remove barriers and strengthen the small business ecosystem are the only way to ensure small businesses – as well as the jobs they create – can continue to grow in North Carolina.

Shaun Caldwell is the owner of Clear Perimeter in Charlotte and is one of the 85,000 business owners in Small Business Majority’s network.