Finding the First Step: Clarity, Navigation, and Immigrant Inclusion in City-Connected Web Guidance for Starting a Business in Philadelphia, USA

Prospective entrepreneurs often begin with a practical question: What should I do first? For immigrants who are also learning a new regulatory system or working in a second language, the answer may be harder to locate. This study examines how Philadelphia's City-connected web guidance presents that first step. A directed content analysis examined 14 public webpages accessed between July 3 and September 5, 2026: seven City of Philadelphia pages and seven pages from providers reached through the City's Business Technical Assistance Program network. A separate audit tested all nine provider links listed by the City; all pages and links were rechecked on September 5. Using the proposed First-Step Accessibility framework, the study coded orientation, activation, navigation, inclusion, and coverage of regulatory and business-readiness topics. All 14 pages contained an action route, and 10 prioritized a concrete immediate action. Only five presented two or more ordered actions, five stated eligibility or prerequisites, four disclosed cost or free status, and three supplied timing information. Nine pages provided multilingual access, but only four tied language assistance directly to business support. One page explicitly named immigrant entrepreneurs, and none provided documentation-sensitive guidance or referral. Seven of nine provider links led to relevant information; one redirected to a general City page and one to unrelated content. The sampled system therefore contained substantial but distributed capacity. Its pages offered multiple entry points, but the corpus rarely connected regulatory guidance, planning, finance, and operational support into one sequenced pathway. These findings describe the sampled webpages and do not establish how users understand or experience them.

immigrant entrepreneurship, administrative burden, business support, language access, Philadelphia

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