For Black-owned businesses, concerns extend beyond inflation, supply chain issues

A recent study of small business owners by the U.S.

However, Black business owners, like Millner and Co., face other unique hurdles that are specific to the Black community.

“We know that when something is bad for all small businesses in America, it’s worse for Black-owned businesses,” said economist Nicholas J.

A Future Forum/Slack survey of 5,448 workers found that 83% of Black workers want a flexible working schedule to create a work-life balance, which creates a labor shortage for Black business owners serving the Black community, especially in the service industry.

“Their freedom and flexibility in their schedule are more important to them than a regular paycheck,” Millner said of many young Black workers he has employed.

The Chamber of Commerce study said that 85% of small business owners say they are concerned about the impact of inflation on their business, up from 74% last quarter.

One in three small business owners call inflation their highest concern and 67% of them have raised prices in response to inflation.

She and her husband, a pharmaceutical company executive, had to use programs such as Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)’s Black Economic Development Fund to secure the resources to procure their business.

Small Business Administration’s flagship 7(a) program decreased loans to Black businesses by 35% in 2020, the largest drop in lending to any race or ethnic group tracked by the agency.

Many Black businesses, the Brookings Institute’s report said, had greater luck pursuing loans from non mainstream banks.

NPR reported that Savannah, Georgia’s Black-owned Carver State Bank helped many Black businesses that were denied loans from mainstream banks, issuing $9 million in PPP loans within a five-month period. .

Inspired by the cause and frustrated with long-standing inequities that were on full display when George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, BLM helped ignite a push to support Black-owned businesses.

There was no data to support the uptick in sales that owners say they initially felt, but anecdotally, they contend there was a boost once businesses reopened after the pandemic-forced shut down.

According to NBC Bay Area, searches for “Black-owned businesses near me” peaked in June 2020, with companies like Yelp making it easier for people to find and support Black-owned businesses, per data from Google.

Tremaine Jasper, owner and editor of PhxSoul.com, a website that lists events and has a Phoenix-area Black-owned business directory, said he benefited from the social justice movement and community effort to support Black-owned business.

He said it is difficult to pinpoint the cause for the decline, but noted one factor could be from a decline of media coverage highlighting Black-owned businesses.

She said that during the height of the social justice movement, corporations and financial institutions pledged to support Black-owned businesses

To address the stunted growth and financial concerns of Black businesses, Steve Hall, LISC’s vice president of Small Business and Economic Development Lending and its national director of Entrepreneurs of Color Fund, said the company has also invested $250 million into its Black Economic Development Fund to alleviate some of the economic challenges in Black communities and help close the racial wealth gap

This helped small business owners like Londy, who faced major financial challenges both during and post-pandemic

Hall, who leads LISC’s small business and commercial lending, said the organization works with partners and foundations to decrease down payment risks for borrowers

He said it’s also important for Black business owners to understand the value of partnering with other Black-owned businesses: “Let’s work on our strengths and weaknesses and try to present a good opportunity.”