Small Firm Diaries, USA: Understanding how small businesses really work — and what they need to grow

Our programs

Small Firm Diaries, USA is a two-year study, led by the Financial Access Initiative at NYU Wagner and EA Consultants, to understand the financial lives of businesses in low-income neighborhoods, with a focus on marginalized entrepreneurs.

How the Small Firm Diaries USA project works to strengthen the small business ecosystem

  • Founded in 2006 and housed at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the Financial Access Initiative (FAI) is a research center focused on financial inclusion, development, and poverty. Its work centers on how financial services can better meet the needs — and improve the lives — of low-income households.
  • Through its global research project, the Small Firm Diaries, FAI is bringing fresh insight to how small businesses operate in practice — especially at the margins. While it’s common to hear that small businesses are engines of employment and economic growth, that umbrella term spans everything from informal micro-enterprises to professional firms. What do we really know about the diverse businesses within that category — especially at the smaller end and in under-resourced communities?
  • Small Firm Diaries combines rigorous data with real-world storytelling. Its mixed-methods approach includes financial diaries — capturing both quantitative trends in decision-making and qualitative narratives that explain the why behind each choice. So far, the research has been conducted in Colombia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Indonesia, and Fiji — generating valuable insight into the financial practices, needs, and working conditions of small firms.

Program overview

Our work together

  • With support from Mastercard Strive USA, the Financial Access Initiative is expanding the Small Firm Diaries to include small businesses in the United States. This U.S. expansion will continue FAI’s dual focus — capturing data on both small business owners and the workers inside their firms. That perspective is essential to understanding how to design programs that address the needs of low-income entrepreneurs and their employees — and how to navigate trade-offs that might affect either group.
  • The insights generated through this research will help Mastercard Strive USA and its partners deepen their understanding of the barriers that small businesses face — and use that learning to strengthen programs that equip entrepreneurs for long-term success.

By the numbers

  • From 2021 to 2023, Small Firm Diaries studied 774 small businesses across six countries.

“Understanding the everyday challenges in low-income neighborhoods is critical to helping these often-neglected small firms grow.”

Tim Ogden

Managing Director, Financial Access Initiative, NYU Wagner

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