Suppose that you’re a single mother living in a rough part of the city. The father of your child is not around. You’d like to work, but it’s a challenge to fit that with your commitments as a mother.
Yet you have ambition and energy — and an entrepreneurial idea: Other women in your area are also single mothers facing the same challenges, so why not open a day-care center for children? You could run it as a solo business. Or you and the other women could run it as a cooperative business, rotating shifts and thus freeing up time for work at another job.
Good idea.
Then you think: Zoning laws don’t allow you to run it out of your apartment, so you’ll need to rent another place. You’ll also need a business license. And since you’re dealing with children, you need special certification.
In Chicago, for example, this is what you face:
What happens next with the single mother? Does she follow through with her entrepreneurial idea? Or does she give it up, remaining stuck in poverty?