New businesses are created every day, with nearly 430,000 new business applications filed monthly in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury. Atlanta is a city filled with new businesses, whether it be a local clothing store or a family-owned restaurant. One thing all businesses struggle with when starting out is scaling their business. Most new entrepreneurs aren’t aware of the methods to help their company grow. Creating a scalable business is key to an entrepreneur’s long-term success. One aspect of scalability that is especially important and often overlooked is connectivity. The Atlanta Voice had the opportunity to sit down and have a conversation with Tracy Pitcher, the Senior Vice President of Comcast Business Central Division.
When asked about pieces of advice for new businesses looking to scale, she would say, “When I think about a new business that is starting out, and they are trying to scale, and they’re trying to grow rapidly.” The first piece of advice Ms. Pitcher recommended would be finding organizations and programs designed to help small businesses grow. Some cities have local organizations focused on helping small businesses grow; Ms. Pitcher would give a perfect example. “Atlanta was one of five cities where we deployed Comcast RISE. Comcast RISE helps small businesses with education, marketing, technology, and monetary grants.” In Atlanta alone, there have been 562 recipients of the Comcast RISE grant, with just over 1,600 recipients in Georgia.
Another aspect of starting a business Ms. Pitcher recommended was adding team members with expertise the entrepreneur may be without. “If doing finances, getting licenses, or paying taxes is not your strong suit, really make sure that you have it covered by somebody. If those things aren’t done well, they will be a distraction to growth, to serving your customers, and to your business.” When entrepreneurs have their bases covered, they can truly focus on what is best for growing the company. During our conversation about growing businesses, Ms. Pitcher made sure to take time to shed light on the importance of cybersecurity for businesses of any size.
Ms. Pitcher explained how cybersecurity threats often happen to business owners: “Our 2024 report is based upon 29 billion cybersecurity events that were detected across Comcast Business in 2023.” She would go on to stress the importance of having a secure connectivity partner for cyber security and other reasons like cloud solutions and customer service. Whenever a company wants to scale, it needs to look into how its connectivity can help with the growth of its business, whether it be for security or cloud solutions. When creating a business, there are many aspects that can easily get overlooked; the importance of a secure connection that can grow with a company is something businesses of any size should have.
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship Lab. The Lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.