1-23-2017, CNBC -- Optimism among small-business owners has soared as entrepreneurs hope that President-elect Donald Trump will enact policies aimed at helping them.

Trump has promised to ease regulation. While some on Main Street cheer the goal, changing anything substantial about regulation is easier said than done.

But there are other ways that a Trump administration can make life easier for small businesses. Consider this five-step plan his first 100 days agenda for Main Street.

Also, Trump should maintain and potentially expand the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, a competitive awards-based program that aims to encourage small-business owners to pursue technical innovations, says Martin Baily, the Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in Economic Policy Development and a senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings.

"This is a program that gets large federal agencies like the DOD [Department of Defense] and NIH [The National Institutes of Health] to provide a percentage of their innovation funding to small businesses," he tells CNBC.

Streamline communications with the government 

Communicating with the government is almost always inefficient. But it doesn't have to be.

"Trump needs to double down on the investments in technology made in the last several years, designed to streamline the federal government's interaction with the average consumer and small business owner," says Mills.

Mills recommends making all government forms digitally available with auto-filled required fields so that entrepreneurs don't have to complete the same fields over and over.

Read the rest of the story HERE.