By the Bootstraps

My favorite source of Chicago small business news, Crain’s Chicago Business, spoke to three women in Chicago’s business world. These women – Laurel Bellows, Venita Fields and Maria Pinto – spoke with Crain’s about the economy’s effect on entrepreneur’s hoping to get their stores off the group during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Bellows told said she believed the recession created new opportunities for businesses. Rents are affordable and industries are more willing to negotiate cheaper rates, where they may have been less flexible in the past, said Laurel Bellows, an area lawyer.

Pinto – best known as one of First Lady Michelle Obama’s favorite Chicago designers – stressed networking’s importance during the recession.

“There are business groups and resources out there that you can afford,” Pinto said “Many people who have been extremely successful find great joy out of helping other people.”

The Kansas City, Missouri-based organization the Kauffman Foundation backed their findings. It found the country “might be on the cusp of an entrepreneurship boom, triggered by the recession, an aging population and less job security,” the Crain’s report said.

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Despite Mayor Richard M. Daley’s desire to foster small businesses in the city, a recent article said red tape stifles potential business growth in Chicago. The Crain’s Chicago Business article was based on a May study done by the Institute for Justice Clinic in Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago. read more »

Many articles talk about the idea of a good or service being recession-proof, or immune to the fluctuating economy. Booze, chocolate, video games… consumers are still buying. But one industry proving to withstand the economic downturn may surprise you; according to a Chicago Sun-Times article, the pet industry has grown by $2.2 million to $45.5 million. One woman interviewed for the article said she spent $5,000 per month on her Chihuahua and cut back in other areas to make sure she could still afford the lifestyle her beloved pet had grown accustomed to. Chicago pets are in luck – there are plenty of area small businesses dedicated to keep a pooch posh during the recession. The Google Map below highlights just six of them.

View Every Dog Has His Store in a larger map

Photo credit: “New Guinea Singing Dog,”