Illustration by Annelise Capossela/For The Washington Post; iStock
Kelly Bozigian experienced the kind of meteoric success that most creators dream of. Within weeks of launching her jewelry company on TikTok, mega-creator Alix Earle shared one of the company’s charm necklaces with her followers. In three weeks, sales rocketed to $100,000; by six months, she had sold $1 million in product.
What she wasn’t prepared for was a lawsuit that also followed, challenging the company’s name. Bozigian settled the suit, and sales have continued to be strong, but it’s an example of how creators have benefitted from — and struggled with — the sudden success of running a small business without much experience.
According to a 2025 Visa survey, 68 percent of creators consider themselves small-business owners. Now, a wake of companies and services — tech platforms, financial institutions, local governments and even Congress — are jumping in, ready to assist their continued growth.
“[Creators] don't have the tools, the resources, and really very often the education around how to run a business, because they got into business to live their passion,” said Ginger Siegel, the North America small and medium business lead at Mastercard. She said she considers a creator a small business as soon as they “set out to turn a passion into a financial opportunity.”
Siegel outlined common challenges for creator-led small businesses that the company is trying to address, a recognition of creators’ economic power: separating personal and business checking accounts, access to capital, and cyber attacks. Creators themselves also pointed to struggles to understand taxes and obtain loans to match their rapid development.
Creators are also changing the makeup of the small business space, as the average age of small-business owners has declined, Siegel said. That is only expected to increase, per Judy Nam, LinkedIn’s vice president of marketing for small business. She said LinkedIn has seen a 70 percent increase in entrepreneurial activity year over year, with a particular rise in young Gen Z founders enabled by AI.
Small and mid-sized businesses’ use of TikTok in New York — where the company held a small business showcase with creators I attended last week — contributed $1.8 billion to the state’s GDP per TikTok and Oxford Economics. Additionally, 9 in 10 said their business’ sales increased after promoting their products or services on the platform.
Politicians have taken notice of the growth, too. New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin said that more small businesses closed in the state last year than opened, and that a third of small businesses in the state have no web presence at all. She framed social media as a necessary tool to revive them. New York City Council Member Kevin Riley introduced legislation to create a pilot program pairing creators with small businesses to help with marketing.
In Congress, the framing of creators as small businesses has been key for the bipartisan Congressional Creators Caucus. Cochair Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), a member of the House Committee on Small Business, cited the example of Texas-based Dude Perfect, “who are creating jobs, they are hiring teams, they're investing in equipment and production, and they're operating like other small businesses.”
Van Duyne said the caucus will host its first creator economy showcase on Capitol Hill on June 3, inviting every member to meet directly with creators to understand how they operate and the challenges they’re facing — from AI to taxation and trade issues.
This story is part of Verified, a newsletter that is published by Washington Post Creator, a team outside The Washington Post’s newsroom that is focused on the creator economy and content partnerships with independent creators. Learn more about Washington Post Creator.
