The lender’s free Business Resources Central is designed to provide educational courses and other tools, and it is open to U.S. Bank clients and non-clients, plus small businesses that are suppliers to the bank, according to a Monday (July 28) press release.
“Small businesses are vital to the U.S. economy,” Shruti Patel, chief product officer for business banking at U.S. Bank, said in the release. “We aim to support them with access to capital and financial education. Our new private learning platform offers essential resources, and our team will work closely with business owners for any follow-up assistance.”
The hub was developed with the help of Next Street, a company that offers training and other solutions for small businesses. Small businesses can create free accounts to access courses on topics such as “business continuity planning” and “how to prepare to seek financing,” the release said.
The launch came as small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United States face increasing economic headwinds.
The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Main Street Businesses are Struggling” found that Main Street businesses saw their growth rate fade between late 2024 and the first quarter of this year, lagging overall U.S. business growth despite a strong post-pandemic rebound.
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The slowdown was due largely to fewer new establishments and less wage growth compared to bigger companies. Main Street businesses are defined as small, brick-and-mortar firms with physical operations, employees and annual revenues of less than $10 million. They pay 25% of the country’s wages.
“Historically, these workhorse businesses have often outperformed their larger peers, even bouncing back strongly after the initial pandemic shock through mid-2022, fueled by federal aid and surging consumer demand,” PYMNTS wrote July 16. “But over the four quarters ending in Q1 2025, Main Street businesses grew at a notably slower pace than the overall U.S. business index. While the overall business index rose 3.6%, Main Street managed only 2.4% growth.”
Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote last week about efforts by SMBs to adopt artificial intelligence-powered, no-code tools to handle their back offices.
“Today, solo founders, accountants and operations managers are turning to AI to automate key back-office functions,” the report said. “From invoice generation and bill reminders to recurring billing and AI-assisted tax calculators, SMBs are using technology once reserved for large corporations.”
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