Business

Minority-owned businesses won contracts worth $217 million from Massachusetts state agencies last year, a jump of more than $50 million from the year before, according to new data from the state’s Supplier Diversity Office.

Times were tough for people of color who owned businesses in Boston in 2008. The great recession had kicked off, putting stress on businesses of all sizes. Entrepreneurs faced difficult choices, from whom to lay off to whether to keep the doors open.

The Boston Impact Initiative (BII), a nonprofit impact investment group focused on businesses and entrepreneurship in Massachusetts communities of color, recently announced the launch of a new $20 million investment fund aimed at Black and brown entrepreneurs and local and regional community-controlled real estate ventures.

There’s nothing inherently wrong about a financial institution earning a fair profit. But there is nothing fair when billion-dollar institutions design products to prey upon people with the fewest financial resources — just to boost their bottom lines.

At a protest Tuesday outside the Roxbury headquarters of BlueHub, formerly Boston Community Capital, Cheryl Ortiz and a few dozen other homeowners rallied against its lending practices.

Robert Glover thinks of fixing shoes like sculpting. “Like making something out of clay. I’m taking a pair of shoes, tearing them apart and putting them back together,” he said, while sitting behind a counter labeled “No refunds” and surrounded by medieval-looking presses, clamps, shoe stands and single loose shoes.

Visitors to Bow Market in Somerville’s Union Square can now spot the vibrant colors and chic silhouettes of local designer Joelle Fontaine in the windows. Fontaine opened the first brick-and-mortar shop for her brand Kréyol at the end of May and has quickly become a part of the local business marketplace.

In a packed, warmly lit room looking out on Columbus Avenue and the Northeastern University campus, speakers celebrated the grand opening of The Underground Cafe + Lounge Sept. 20.

The new Mattapan location — the first bank branch to open in the square in decades — is what the bank calls a Community Branch — one with enhanced services, space for community convenings and plans for partnerships with local nonprofits to help neighborhood residents meet needs ranging from financial literacy and credit repair to jobs and skills training.

Sizzling skillets and three-course menus abound in Boston once again during Dine Out Boston restaurant week, August 8-21. For two weeks, diners can experience new restaurants or old favorites through fixed-price lunch and dinner menus ranging from $15-$38.