Keeping Black-Owned Businesses in the Black 

Owning and operating a Black business in America hasn’t been easy, especially in this era of the COVID-19 pandemic.  According to a report by the U.S. House Small Business Committee at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, African American businesses were subject to the largest decline in business than any other ethnic group.  … Continued

Keeping Black-Owned Businesses in the Black 

Owning and operating a Black business in America hasn’t been easy, especially in this era of the COVID-19 pandemic.  According to a report by the U.S. House Small Business Committee at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, African American businesses were subject to the largest decline in business than any other ethnic group.  Many Black entrepreneurs have been forced to close their doors. 

While small businesses owned by Whites were able to benefit from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a business study found that the PPP loan success rate of White applicants was 60%, while only 29% for African American owners.  Even before the pandemic, Black-owned businesses faced frequent and severe financial inequities and barriers to starting and sustaining their respective service or product-oriented entity.  Some of the biggest problems for Black-owned businesses across the country are rooted in the lack of capital and credit.  

There’s no doubt that Black-owned businesses face obstacles that their White counterparts don’t experience or experience but find solutions to remain in business. Nevertheless, Black-owned companies are now finding services, programs, initiatives, and resources to empower their quests to not only survive but thrive.  

PNC has launched a new Minority Business Development Group initiative, created to deliver products, solutions, and resources focused on advancing the financial wellness of emerging minority businesses.  Comprised of bankers and advocacy partners, the Minority Business Development Group will help prepare Black and other minority-owned businesses for effective growth, development, and sustainability.   

“The mission of the Minority Business Development Group is to deliver solutions and resources that will enable financial wellness for small businesses in our diverse communities,” said Marshalynn Odneal, PNC’s national sales executive for Minority Business. 

With 33 years of banking experience, Odneal, who is African American, will lead her team of bankers and work in close collaboration with PNC’s dedicated Minority Business Development Officers, Community Development Banking, and Corporate Responsibility Groups across the country to establish and deepen relationships with Black and other minority-owned business clients and prospects. 

Detroit is one of ten cities across the country that will be a part of PNC’s Minority Business Development Group, which will focus on helping small businesses to grow. 

“Small businesses are the fabric of our communities, and it’s our privilege to help and support them,” Odneal said.  “Through this work, we hope to become a true partner to minority business owners and arm them with the tools and support they will need to be successful.  Our team will be a part of these communities, fulfilling our mission of financial wellness for all by ensuring equitable access to products and solutions that will help these businesses thrive.” 

Another organization helping Black businesses in Detroit and across the nation is the National Business League (NBL), founded by Booker T. Washington 122 years ago.  The historic organization has regional offices in Detroit, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.  

The mission of NBL is to provide a platform that empowers, promotes, and connects Black businesses towards their complete economic freedom and liberation.  The organization’s          12-Point Platform includes promoting Black business success, Economic policy advocacy, Black equity and inclusion, Access to capital, Talent placement and acquisition, Closing the digital divide, Job creation through entrepreneurship, Land ownership, and Commercial development. 

“The State of Black Business in America is an urban tragedy,” said Dr. Ken Harris, president & CEO, National Business League.  “The only way for Black businesses to be successful is to develop Black financial institutions and Black-ran technical assistance centers because access to capital is critical to developing, growing, and building the capacity of Black businesses.” 

National Business League has been on a mission that has included prominent partnerships with major American Corporations.  In the summer of 2020, Comerica Bank pledged $1 million to enter into a four-year commitment with the National Business League to launch the Black Capital Access Program, an access to capital initiative to assist Black businesses across the nation, including Detroit.   

In October 2021, Stellantis (successor to the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ merger) and the National Business League formed a pilot initiative called the National Black Supplier Development Program.  The post-pilot program, according to Stellantis and NBL spokespersons, will develop more than 2.9 million Black businesses for future contracting and procurement opportunities.  

“The Stellantis-National Business League Black Supplier Development Program is an idea whose time has come,” said Mark Stewart, COO, Stellantis North America, at the company’s kick-off event in Detroit.  “It is an idea that addresses the need to take direct, decisive, and intentional action to bring economic opportunities to communities that have been denied equal access to the marketplace for far too long. To confirm, in a very intentional way, that our ability to realize the full promise of our country is to ensure that its economic systems are open to all, equally.” 

Another organization at the forefront of developing economic opportunities is Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC), the city’s economic and business development catalyst since 1978.   

DEGC provides a host of programming to help startups and established businesses flourish.  The organization’s Motor City Match is created to assist Detroit entrepreneurs at various stages of their business development by providing funding and tools to be successful in the world of entrepreneurship.  DEGC’s Motor City Re-Store provides neighborhood businesses with assistance to improve and make their storefronts more attractive.  DEGC also touts its Detroit Means Business initiative, created to develop an infrastructure that connects small businesses to dozens of vital resources that exist for them to grow.   Detroit Means Business is comprised of 60-plus private, public, and philanthropic partners, ready to help the needs of Detroit’s small businesses.    

Another organization that’s making a positive difference is the Metro-Detroit Black Business Alliance (MDBBA), formed in March 2021 and jumpstarted by a $1 million contribution from TCF (now Huntington Bank).   

“Our mission is to create policies and programming that will result in driving Black-owned businesses in Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties,” Charity Dean, president and CEO of Metro-Detroit Black Business Alliance, told the Michigan Chronicle shortly after the organization launched last year.  “We want to make sure that we are focused on closing the wealth gap, which is really crucial to our goals.” 

 

In August of last year, MDBBA opened its Black Business Resource Center in downtown Detroit, where Black entrepreneurs can convene, network, and have access to valuable resources needed to grow.  

 

While starting, sustaining, and having success as a Black-owned business is not an easy task, thanks to initiatives, programs, and services by many organizations, Black entrepreneurship has a better chance of staying in the Black, staying in business, and thriving.