A practitioners’ guide to building organizational capabilities to serve small businesses

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and Next Street have partnered to publish this practitioners’ guide. It outlines how organizations serving small businesses can work together to identify ecosystem-level and organization-specific strategies.

LISC and Next Street recognize practitioners need support for ecosystem-level coordination as well as informed strategies for their individual organizations based on local market needs and varying stakeholder assets. This guide is designed for practitioners looking to strengthen their support for small businesses and will also serve as a tool to spark conversation alongside other local partners.

This guide will:

• Share best practices leading with equity and inclusion to help assess local market capacities and gaps
• Outline the potential roles in which local stakeholders can adapt or intensify their efforts
• Provide decision-making criteria to identify appropriate ecosystem roles for organizations and their partners
• Offer guidance on how to create an implementation plan to execute