Melissa Cooper

Nechama Levy in her Crown Heights store.

Small businesses are valued by more than their customers. They’re seen as part of the unique commercial fabric of neighborhoods, and as a way for people excluded by—or just tired with—the corporate economy to enter the marketplace. And women are becoming a much bigger part of small business in New York City. Data indicate that the number of businesses owned by women have increased 43 percent in the last decade.

Behind each of those data points lay ambition, ideas and hard work. Nechama Levy, founder and owner of Bicycle Roots in Crown Heights, talks to City Limits about why she opened her store and what lessons she has learned.