RALEIGH – Startup rates are stagnant across North Carolina.

That’s not good enough, says the NC Rural Center.

Today, it announced that it has joined the coalition, Start Us Up, in a bid to reduce barriers to entrepreneurship for women, people of color and rural residents.

Launched in collaboration with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Thread Capital and over 100 entrepreneurship advocacy groups nationwide, the group has released its policy plan called America’s New Business Plan.

The group said it provides policymakers at the local, state, and federal level a bipartisan roadmap to spur more startups across the country to create new jobs.

“North Carolina must work across economic sectors and geography, and through public and private partnerships, to better address declining rates of entrepreneurship, which we know is especially pronounced in rural communities,” said NC Rural Center President Patrick Woodie, in a statement.

“We call on our state’s policymakers to balance our investments in economic development with more robust efforts to better harness the power of our entrepreneurs — both rural and urban — to create jobs and grow North Carolina’s economy.”

In North Carolina, startups created an average of 4.61 new jobs in 2018, down from 6.65 in 1996. Meanwhile the percent of the population that starts new businesses (0.27 percent in 2018) has been flat since 1998, when it was 0.27 percent, according to the NC Rural Center.

NC averages 4.4 new startups per 1,000 residents, but urban counties still dominate

To address this, the NC Center said the new plan outlines a mix of “straightforward steps alongside more ambitious things policymakers can do to strengthen access to entrepreneurship.” They include:

  • Creating a single checklist of everything entrepreneurs need to do from a regulatory perspective to start a new business.
  • Reforming immigration policy to establish a startup visa that authorizes foreign entrepreneurs to start businesses in the U.S.
  • Expanding access to capital.
  • Providing a stronger safety net that includes things like more affordable health care options and student loan relief

“America’s economy is out of balance. We’ve got businesses that have become too entrenched and powerful, while people and communities across America are being left behind,” said Wendy Guillies, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, in a statement.

“There’s a solution. Supporting and expanding entrepreneurship increases jobs, innovation, and productivity.”