How local ecosystems can drive growth in Black-owned businesses

How local ecosystems can drive growth in Black-owned businesses

Systemic challenges are holding Black-owned businesses back and stymying their growth.

Local networks, mentoring and support can help businesses move past these blockages.

Here are six factors to consider in building these much-needed ecosystems.



Black-owned businesses in the US are systemically prevented from accelerating their growth by a toxic brew of limited personal assets, limited access to bank finance, and restricted access to markets. The result is that although Black-Americans, blocked from labour markets, are over-represented in the ranks of the self-employed, their businesses are disproportionately low-growth. The vicious circle of being shut out from from markets and finance, and staying small, results in unequal access to opportunity and prosperity. Clearly, a dynamic of new growth in Black-owned businesses should be a social priority. Local networks, programmes, leadership