In honor of African American History Month, SBA convened a roundtable with faith leaders, small business advocates, and non-profit organizations in the African American community to discuss how we can reduce barriers, increase economic mobility, and create ladders of opportunity through our various resources. The conversation outlined the progress SBA has made in supporting minority-owned small businesses and laid the groundwork for greater collaboration in the coming months with these important community leaders.
Over the past five years, SBA has made great strides in unlocking new opportunities for minority small business owners. Under President Obama, the SBA has supported record amounts of lending to small businesses — more than $130 billion to more than 225,000 small businesses during the course of five years. In FY2013 alone, SBA supported almost $29 billion in lending to America’s small business owners. Programs such as the Small Loan Advantage and Community Advantage helped fill market gaps in smaller dollar loans and loans to underserved communities. And through our counseling network of Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers, and SCORE counselors, we helped entrepreneurs acquire over $4.5 Billion in capital infusion, start over 15,000 businesses, and create and/or retain more than 68,000 jobs.
But we know more must be done.
With the help of our public and private sector partners, SBA plans to follow the President’s lead by making 2014 a year of action. We are proud to announce our participation in the launch of Business Sunday, a new initiative with the Department of Commerce, the Minority Business Development Agency and Business USA. This initiative is focused on connecting current and future entrepreneurs and business leaders from congregations and communities around the country with the federal resources they need to start and grow their companies. Business Sunday will help people access valuable technical assistance, grant information and other resources. The first Business Sunday program will take place on Sunday, March 30, 2014 in Washington, DC.
As we look ahead, SBA will continue to work on behalf of America’s minority-owned small businesses because we know that entrepreneurs and small business owners are the backbone of our economy and the foundation of our middle class. They make our country great and help drive economic growth
