Actually, poor people start lots of businesses, particularly immigrant families. In lots of cases those tend to be mom-and-pop operations, not things intended to become unicorns or anything, just enough to afford independence from "the man", or to give the kids an opportunity to get an education etc. (Kim's Convenience really gets at this dynamic pretty well for immigrant families). Often times too, poor people's businesses are in the gray economy. Pushing around a cart selling ice-cream, going house to house selling tamales, maintaining a clientele fro nails and hair styling. In fact, one of the biggest obstacles to these folks are the local regulations. I'm no libertarian, but it has long been clear to me that the licensing requirements etc. for some of this stuff is a real obstacle to moving out of the gray economy for them.