Pennsylvania's Small Businesses Are Betting on Their Communities. Let's Not Make It Harder.

Even in a tough economy, Pennsylvania's entrepreneurs are betting on their communities. More than 100 new restaurants are opening in Philadelphia this year. In Pittsburgh, applications for food and beverage permits jumped 26 percent over the past two years. Across the state, over 1.2 million small businesses employ 2.5 million people. The energy on our main streets across Pennsylvania is real, but so are the headwinds.

What's holding more of these businesses back isn't a lack of ambition or desire. It's paperwork.

Getting a permit to open a restaurant or add outdoor seating, or simply renew a license, can take months, sometimes the better part of a year. Every step means another form, another fee, another office to call. American businesses spent $521 billion on regulatory compliance in 2024. Small business owners pay roughly $14,700 per employee just to stay in compliance – that’s 20% more than large companies that can hire entire teams to handle it.

That cost impacts the entire community. It slows hiring, delays openings, and quietly guts the kind of local entrepreneurship that makes Pennsylvania communities worth living in. We estimate that reducing permit wait times by just 30 days could unlock over $6.5 billion in new restaurant sales nationwide. That’s money that stays in communities, goes to employees, and powers local economies.

DoorDash launched Unlocking Main Street to change that. Unlocking Main Street is a national campaign to cut the red tape holding small businesses back – and states like Pennsylvania are central to it.

The agenda is practical: permit deadlines that agencies are actually required to meet, fee waivers for businesses in their critical first year, and digital portals where entrepreneurs can track their applications in real time instead of chasing down answers across multiple offices.

We're talking to business owners across the state, bringing their stories to policymakers, and backing reforms we know work because cities are already proving it.

Philadelphia is a good example. The City Council recently moved to cut the permitting timeline for outdoor dining, a process that used to take up to 18 months, by letting more restaurants skip the separate Council vote. The city is also piloting an AI tool that helps owners figure out what permits they need before they even start, cutting down on the back-and-forth that eats up time and money. Neither of these changes required a massive new program or a big budget; they just required someone in power deciding it was worth doing.

That's the opportunity in front of Pennsylvania's leaders right now. The small business owners opening restaurants and shops in your communities are navigating this every day, and they remember when their elected officials help clear the path – or when they stand by as things get tough. They're not asking for special treatment. They're asking for a government that doesn't slow them down.

DoorDash brings the data, the merchant network, and a national playbook to back that work up. Through our DashRoots grassroots network, we're organizing small business owners across the country to share their stories and push for change. We're looking for partners in Harrisburg and in city halls across Pennsylvania who want to get ahead of it.

When it gets easier to open a business, hire a first employee, or expand to a second location, everyone wins: the entrepreneur, the neighborhood, and the leaders who helped make it happen. Pennsylvania's small businesses aren't a line item. They're the fabric of our communities. Pennsylvania has everything it needs for a real Main Street comeback. Let's unlock it.