The workforce in the United States is estimated at roughly 170.6 million Americans as of March. For many decades, economic development has centered on one primary objective: attracting jobs, often at the expense of understanding how local economies actually function.
Cities have competed for large employers, offered incentives and invested heavily in recruitment strategies aimed at attracting companies to their regions. While this approach has produced growth, it has also created a structural blind spot, one that is especially relevant for rapidly growing communities like Wilmington and the broader Cape Fear region.
The modern economy is no longer dominated solely by centralized employment. It is increasingly powered by entrepreneurs, independent earners and multi-income stream workers. Today, nearly 82% of small businesses are sole proprietors, meaning millions of people are creating their own jobs rather than working for someone else. This workforce represents more than 30 million Americans and well over 17% of the current workforce.
In the modern economy, entrepreneurship is no longer a marginal segment of the workforce; it is increasingly becoming the workforce itself. The future of economic growth is not being built solely by large employers, but by a distributed network of small business owners, independent workers and entrepreneurs operating within our neighborhoods.
When we examine the full composition of today's workforce, a clearer picture begins to emerge. When combining small business owners, freelancers, gig workers and independent operators, more than 78% (134 million people) of the American workforce is no longer exclusively employee based. This signals a fundamental shift in how people earn, produce and participate in the economy. In my book, "Newkirknomics," I describe this transformation as the MISEconomy, the Multi-Income Stream Economy, where individuals are no longer defined by a single job, but by a portfolio of income-generating activities. This is not a temporary trend. It is a structural evolution of the economy itself.
If Wilmington, New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties want to build a more resilient and inclusive economy, the question must shift: How do we create and support more entrepreneurs?
This is the foundation of what I call the Neighborhood Economy, the layer of economic activity made up of small businesses, microenterprises, freelancers and local service providers that shape our daily lives.
And in the Cape Fear region, this sector is already significant. New Hanover County alone is home to more than 14,000 small businesses, while Brunswick County, one of the fastest-growing counties in North Carolina, has seen rapid growth in new business formation alongside its population boom. Across the three-county region, thousands of residents are participating in the local entrepreneur economy, whether through full-time businesses, side ventures or independent work.
But growth alone does not guarantee that economic opportunity is distributed evenly or that local businesses are positioned to benefit. That's where the gap exists.
The Neighborhood Economy is not emerging; it is already existing in plain sight, but the problem is that most cities are not organized to support it. In Wilmington, we see this clearly. There is no shortage of entrepreneurial talent. Every neighborhood across New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties has individuals with ideas, skills and ambition. But too often, these entrepreneurs operate in isolation, without access to structured pathways that help them move from idea to income to sustainable enterprise. If we are serious about building a stronger regional economy, we must focus on building what I call the entrepreneur pipeline. This means creating clear pathways for individuals to move through stages of business development – from aspiring entrepreneur to emerging business to stable, revenue-generating enterprise and eventually job creation. Without this pipeline, many entrepreneurs remain stuck in informal or undercapitalized activity.
But a strong pipeline alone is not enough. Entrepreneurs need infrastructure.
In the Cape Fear region, we have important entrepreneur support organizations that have collaborated to establish the Coalition with organizations like the Small Business Center Network, SBTDC, Genesis Block Foundation, Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington and UNCW's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. These organizations play a critical role – but they are often operating without a fully coordinated system that maps and connects entrepreneurs across the region. What's needed is a more integrated approach (shared systems and infrastructure), one that ensures entrepreneurs can easily access coworking spaces, commercial kitchens, training programs and incubation environments that help them scale.
At the same time, in the Cape Fear region, there is significant capital flowing through our community. Local governments, hospitals, universities and major employers collectively spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on goods and services. Yet only a small percentage of that spending consistently reaches local small businesses. This is where one of the greatest opportunities lies: the procurement spending of community-based organizations. If even a modest portion of institutional purchasing were redirected toward local businesses, it could create stable revenue streams and allow entrepreneurs to scale.
The future of Wilmington's economy will not be exclusively defined by the companies we recruit. It will be defined by the entrepreneurs we develop, the businesses we support and the systems we build to help local talent thrive.
Wilmington entrepreneur and author Girard Newkirk is the co-founder and CEO of Genesis Block.
