According to Brookings’ “To Expand the Economy, Invest in Black Businesses“, the growth of Black businesses can generate 20 million jobs and $6 trillion in revenue…which is why Black business resilience is so important. From Greenwood to BlackTechWeek, come rain or shine, we rise!
As the largest Black owned bank in the country, we see Black business owners taking positive steps to reinvent themselves and adapt for growth. Take our Resilience Quiz below. How many of these steps are you taking?
- Did you pivot? Due to COVID-19, many businesses had to pivot to new products and services. CNBC provides some examples in it’s article “Here’s How these Small Businesses Pivoted to Survive During the Pandemic.”
- Did you upgrade your online presence? Many Black owned businesses are recognizing the need to have online products and services and a social media presence. There are now online platforms like www.webuyblack.com and apps like the Official Black Wall Street to service online Black owned businesses.
- Did you see more businesses because your Black owned? On YELP and Google, there are now opportunities to identify our businesses as Black owned so that people who want to #BuyBlack and #BankBlack, they can find us. We are embracing our authentic voice!
- Do you own your business name and intellectual property? Do you own you? The new “real estate” is intellectual property including trademarks, copyrights, publishing rights, URLs and even NFTs. We are embracing ownership of our virtual and highly valuable assets.
- Did you re-evaluate your brick & mortar needs? Some Black businesses went completely virtual and eliminated office space to save money, while others bought their property or renegotiated their leases. In some communities like the 5th Ward in Houston, the Black community came together to buy property for Black businesses.
- Did you secure a new source of funds? There have been many new sources of funding from the Paycheck Protection Program to the SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program to local grant programs. Businesses are receiving funding from new sources.
- Did you get a new contract with a private company? Many Black owned businesses are getting new contracts from private companies that support #BlackLivesMatter. For example, recently Clearwater Analytics and OneUnited Bank introduced a technology-based solutions for corporate clients to invest money seamlessly in minority communities through deposits in minority banks. And Target made a commitment to spend more than $2 billion from Black owned businesses by 2025.
- Are you pursuing new infrastructure or public contracts? Many Black owned businesses are pursuing public contracts expected from the 2021 $1 trillion infrastructure plan. These publicly funded projects represent an opportunity for Black owned businesses.
If you answered YES to at least 4 out of 8 questions above, CONGRATULATIONS for your resilience! You should see more success in 2021/22!
Let’s celebrate our resilience and keep moving forward! #BuildBlack #BuyBlack #BankBlack
