The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) is the nation's leading resource for the self-employed and micro-businesses (up to four employees), providing a broad range of benefits and support to help the smallest businesses succeed.

The NASE was founded in 1981 by a group of small- business owners in search of a structure of 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 non-profit, non-partisan 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; and
• Providing access to benefits that promote the health and financial security of micro-business owners.

The NASE has pioneered support for the self-employed and micro-businesses, which have been among the largest creators of jobs in recent years. According to the Small Business Administration, micro-businesses generated 37.6 percent of new jobs between 1998 and 1999.