As a small business owner, we know you wear many hats—from running the day-to-day operations of your business, to managing employees, building a brand and much more. One thing many entrepreneurs feel unequipped to deal with while starting or running a business is how to handle business finances and maintain a healthy workforce.
This year, we continued to educate small business owners and entrepreneurs about important resources, funding options, policy updates and more that could help their businesses recover from the ongoing pandemic and become more resilient. Over the course of the year, we hosted and participated in more than 430 events, partnering with more than 300 organizations and stakeholders. These events garnered more than 20,000 event registrants and indirectly reached 150,000 individuals.
Jose Cristian and Keila Castorena founded SelvaSur Coffee in 2016, a family-owned coffee manufacturing company, with the vision of bringing the highest quality coffee beans and Latin American products that are ethically and lovingly harvested from Peru and Organic Chiapas coffee beans from Mexico, to the Denver area.
The pandemic has underscored the importance of accessible and affordable capital for small businesses like mine. It’s a critical component to maintaining my business’s operations and growth. That’s precisely why all small businesses should be protected as we search for capital.
When federal funding programs don’t work for the small businesses they were designed to support, owners may be forced to seek out much riskier avenues to capital in order to keep their doors open. Unfortunately Chef Frisco Thumbtzen in South Carolina is one such example.
After his military service left him with disabled veteran status, Chef Frisco turned to entrepreneurship. In the military, he worked as a limousine driver and when he was discharged, he was given his own vehicle so he could start up his own transportation business.
More than a year and a half into the pandemic, many small businesses are unsure if they will be able to recover after fighting to stay above water and accruing crippling debt. Small business owners of color, women and immigrants have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic as they’ve faced barriers to accessing federal relief programs and traditional lending. Small business owner Daysi Del Rosario Rivas Peralta is one example.
Owning a small business can be challenging if you don’t have access to resources and tools to help you understand and manage the operational side of your business. For Javier Haro, this came at a high cost when his short debut as a restaurant owner came to a screeching halt after shutting down his business when the 2009 economic downturn hit the market.
On October 18, 2021, Midwest Region Director Geri Aglipay testified before the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation in support of the Illinois Community Reinvestment Act (IL CRA). This legislation will combat ageism in lending and uplift entrepreneurs of color and women entrepreneurs.
Currently the federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA) requires that consumer creditors disclose critical financing information, including annual percentage rate (APR), in a clear and comparable format. However, Congress has yet to extend these disclosure requirements to small business loans and other credit products, which means small businesses are vulnerable to irresponsible lenders. As small businesses recover from the pandemic, it should go without saying that transparent lending shouldn’t be up for debate.
Deb Ramirez Rock’s Sonoma, Calif.-sourced hot sauce has been her passion project for more than seven years, but after a series of unpredictable events—starting with a wildfire in 2019 that destroyed her crops—it has been an uphill battle to make her organic, locally made hot sauce.
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