Amazon small businesses share stories of entrepreneurship on Capitol Hill

The small businesses selling in Amazon’s store are at the heart of their communities. From neighborhood shop owners creating local jobs and innovators building new brands to rural businesses reaching international customers, ecommerce is helping small businesses thrive.

In June, executives from 22 companies traveled to Washington, D.C., to share their stories of entrepreneurship with lawmakers and congressional staff, and to discuss issues that impact their everyday business operations. They also spent time exchanging ideas, discussing lessons learned, and building connections and relationships with other small business leaders who sell in the Amazon store. The sellers represented 17 states across the country, from Ohio and New Hampshire to Nevada, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and more.

For many, the opportunity was their first to meet with elected officials in our nation’s capital.

“It’s important for small businesses to let policymakers know that just because it’s an ecommerce store doesn’t mean there aren’t real families behind the products we sell” in the Amazon store, said Deanna Slamans, who launched the eco-friendly diaper liner brand Naturally Nature in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 2014. “There are real dreams behind the products that we sell and goals and visions behind the product.”

PJ and Jamie Creek, both eighth grade teachers in O’Fallon, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, said visiting Capitol Hill was eye-opening for them as avid civics enthusiasts. Their home-based business Periodic Presidents sells history and civics posters for the classroom. The pair researches, designs, and creates infographics inspired by their own students and by other teachers across the country.

“What we see from our house operating out of our garage and our basement…I don’t think that’s really seen when people think of Amazon,” said PJ Creek, co-founder of Periodic Presidents. “When they make legislative decisions on small businesses, it really does impact people like us and so that’s been a positive aspect” of meeting with congressional offices.

Ryan Flanagan, founder of Hatching Time, said the experience enabled him to have open conversations about what matters most to him as an entrepreneur looking to accelerate the local economy in Delaware.

“Everyone’s just human. It’s people talking to people…so having them engage with you and actually listen was the coolest part,” he said. “It’s been a really cool experience getting to talk with them one-on-one, and for them to get to hear from me as a small business owner.”

Flanagan and his cofounder Yağız Aksu launched Hatching Time in 2019 to bring to market innovative backyard poultry equipment manufactured by Aksu’s family. From 2019 to 2022, the company saw sales grow to more than $4 million, an increase of 3,274%, landing them a highly coveted spot among the top 200 in Inc.’s 2023 list of “Fastest Growing Private Companies in the U.S.”

Like Flanagan, other independent sellers who traveled to D.C. wanted to make clear that small businesses serve as economic accelerants for their local communities, helping to create jobs and open doors for upward mobility.

“Small businesses drive the economy, so being able to have a forum to let that voice be heard is important,” said Mary Elisa Calvano, SVP of Operations at Carstens, a 130-year-old Chicago-based binder company that holds the second-oldest business charter in the state of Illinois.

“It’s unique that a forum like this exists where sellers like ourselves, small businesses, get that one-on-one time with our representatives to give them feedback about what’s happening in our neck of the woods,” she said. “There are small businesses of all different shapes and sizes that have all different kinds of unique challenges they’re dealing with on a daily basis that utilize [Amazon] to extend their business into areas that ordinarily they wouldn’t be able to reach.”

Twenty-four years ago, Amazon welcomed independent sellers to sell in its store, helping them access a global consumer base and reach hundreds of millions of customers worldwide. More than 60 percent of sales in Amazon’s store today are from independent sellers, most of which are small and medium-sized businesses. Independent sellers collectively employ 1.8 million people across the country through the businesses they operate in Amazon’s store. They are in all 50 states in the U.S. and in more than 130 countries around the world, serving as economic accelerants for their local communities.

In May, Amazon released its 2023 Small Business Empowerment Report, highlighting the success of independent sellers in the Amazon store and the investments helping drive their growth. With the report, Amazon launched a new interactive map with state-level data and stories from local small business owners who are selling nationwide and to global customers on Amazon.