Showing Digital Equity + Small Business.

How Digital Equity and Small Business Intersect

Running a small business now means working across screens: search results, online reviews, payment apps, permit portals and loan applications. An owner who lacks affordable internet, strong digital skills or someone to ask for help can find each one a roadblock. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, 90% of jobs now call for digital skills. The same gap that holds back workers also holds back the entrepreneurs who hire them.

Digital Equityaccess to modern lifeSmall Businesslocal enterprise and ownership
Digital Equity and Small Business: AI tools widen the gap before they close it
Where they meet: where daily life compounds
  1. Digital Equity and Small Business: AI tools widen the gap before they close it
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Digital Equity + Small Business

A hidden front door customers use first

Most customers check a business online before they visit. A shop that is missing from Google search can lose a sale before anyone walks in. So can a shop with an old profile or few recent reviews. Staying visible takes steady internet, time and skills that not every owner has. The gap is not about effort. It is about access and support.

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Small Business + Digital Equity

Getting a loan starts online

Small business financing now runs through screens: bank applications, SBA portals and fintech apps. An owner with weak internet or few digital skills may find it hard to build a credit history. Finishing the paperwork can be hard too. That owner is more likely to end up with a costlier option. Digital equity is also a question of who can get capital.

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Digital Equity + Small Business

AI tools widen the gap before they close it

More tools for scheduling, bookkeeping, marketing and customer service now run on AI. Owners with good internet and digital skills can pick them up and compete. Owners without that base fall further behind each year. Whether these tools help or hurt local firms depends on affordable internet, usable training and trusted support.

How a digital gap turns into a limit on growth

  1. 01

    Not findable online

    With a shaky connection and stale profiles, the business misses local search results and AI-generated answers.

  2. 02

    Customers don't arrive

    Less visibility slows sales, which makes it harder to build the financial record lenders want.

  3. 03

    Funding gets harder to reach

    Loan and grant applications go through online uploads, so weak internet and skills make finishing them harder.

  4. 04

    Useful tools stay out of reach

    Rivals use marketing and productivity tools freely while this owner cannot, and the gap keeps growing.

Affordable internet and digital skills training made for business owners can break this cycle at its first step. That stops missed customers from becoming missed loans.

By the numbers

  • 14%14% of homes in Mecklenburg County did not have internet access in 2023
  • 54%54% of small business owners in Charlotte-Mecklenburg struggle to identify appropriate funding sources
  • 8,6008,600 households connected to free home-internet services through the City of Charlotte’s “Access Charlotte” initiative
  • 90%The Center for Effective Philanthropy reported that nearly two-thirds of foundations and approximately two-thirds of nonprofits use AI in their work, but 90% of foundations do not offer AI implementation funding to grantees, and almost two-thirds of nonprofits lack staff with solid AI understanding.

Folio links, articles, and reports

Sources & methodology15 referenced sources

Based on fftc:FWD Folio material for Digital Equity and Small Business, the Center for Digital Equity FY2024 report, and broader context on how the issues connect.

AI assists with organizing and explaining selected fftc:FWD source material. It does not replace review by FFTC staff or the judgment of residents and civic partners.