small business

Since 2017, the Business Equity Initiative (BEI), our high-touch advisory program, has supported 100+ entrepreneurs of color to grow and scale their businesses.

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.

If you are ready to dive into small business ownership, having a plan, understanding your credit health, and building a strong foundation can set you up for success — and help you sustain and grow what you are working to build today.

When a group of 50 local business owners and activists sat down with Small Business Administration head Isabella Guzman last Wednesday to discuss ways the federal government can better help local entrepreneurs, there was no lack of ideas.

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.

For 19-year-old Ayah Harper from Revere, the civil unrest that followed George Floyd’s death in 2020 served as a motivator to encourage uncomfortable conversations in her elite private high school and start a small business to enact change.

If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s to believe in the adage “Expect the unexpected.” Rather than believe, perhaps it’s better to embrace in order to empower your business against situations that otherwise feel uncontrollable.

If you are ready to dive into small business ownership, having a plan, understanding your credit health, and building a strong foundation can set you up for success — and help you sustain and grow what you are working to build today.

The disruptions of the past year have cast a spotlight on the unique hurdles that Black business owners face, including lack of access to capital, financial education, and networking opportunities.

At a City Council hearing on March 19, Boston’s Office of Small Business Development revealed that Grove Hall has the highest rate of empty storefronts in the city. But it isn’t due to businesses folding during the pandemic.