The Work Behind the Work: Inside Our Small Business Roundtable

Special thanks to the The Sagrado for hosting us!

Most campaigns talk about small business, but Ashley Harder wants to hear from the small business owners themselves. Last week, she spent the afternoon doing something that doesn't always make it into a campaign recap: listening.

No podium, no press release—just business owners, property managers, and neighbors sharing what it's actually like to run a small business in Phoenix right now.

Anyone can say they're "pro small business."

Fewer people are willing to sit in a room for a few hours, take real notes, and let the conversation go wherever the people living it want to take it: permitting, safety, workforce, public art, all of it. It's slower than a talking point. It's also the only way to actually get it right.

That's the approach Ashley is building her candidacy on: don't assume you know what a small business needs. Ask the people running them.

What we heard as a team

The range of what came up was broad. Owners talked about permitting timelines that are hard to plan around, corridor lighting, wanting a responsive point of contact for issues that aren't quite an emergency, investing in the people who work for them, and a lot more.

Running a small business touches almost everything the city does. A candidate who's serious about supporting them has to be willing to hear all of it, not just the parts that fit neatly into a policy platform.

Download the Small Business one-sheet

Click to download the small business one sheet

This is one stop on a longer listening tour, and the goal isn't to walk away with a five-point plan by next week. It's to keep showing up, keep asking good questions, and let the solutions be shaped by the people who'll actually live with them.

More from the roundtable—and the ideas it's shaping—coming soon. Follow the campaign here.