The NASE was founded in 1981 to provide day-to-day support, benefits and consolidated buying power that traditionally had been available only to large corporations. Today, the NASE represents hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and micro-businesses, and is the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan association of its kind in the United States.
Since its start-up, the NASE has been an important partner in the explosion of micro-businesses in the United States, supporting the interests of the self-employed with benefits and advocacy initiatives aimed at leveling the playing field between these businesses and larger corporations.
Specifically, the aim of the association is to help the self-employed successfully meet the challenges of managing and growing their businesses by:
Securing focused tools and resources that help the self-employed manage and compete more effectively
Representing the interests of the self-employed among legislators in Washington D.C. on key issues that affect their business and that give these businesses more equal footing with larger corporations
Providing access to benefits that promote the health and financial security of micro-business owners.
