Alston: So, Nicole, we spoke to you here on GBH shortly after you stepped into your role at BECMA. And back then you talked about how Black businesses play a crucial role in closing the racial wealth gap, and that if Massachusetts can do that, the state economy would grow by $25 billion. Now, I know that closing the racial wealth gap in Massachusetts can’t happen in a matter of months. But tell us a little bit about the strides that have been made to do so.
Obi: We know that most of the Massachusetts Black-owned businesses are on the smaller end of the scale, meaning that the majority earn less than $1,000,000 in revenue. And we also know that small businesses drive the Massachusetts economy. So we’re very focused on helping and supporting those businesses. We as part of a coalition, the Coalition for Equitable Economy and MassINC. are releasing a survey of 3,400 small businesses from across the commonwealth. Five hundred of those respondents were Black-owned businesses.
And what we found is that, again, the lack of access to capital still remains the number one issue for Black-owned businesses. And so for BECMA, and the work that we’re doing, we’re focused on really helping to open those doors, whether it’s through our policy work or whether it’s through the programing that we do with our partners. Even at our expo, we’re going to have three different events focused on access to capital. Some of the other things that we have learned from that new survey is that there are new growth opportunities that we want to make sure that we’re supporting our businesses and taking advantage of.
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