‘Show us the money:’ Join us for a Feb. 3 event breaking down barriers for Black entrepreneurs

‘Show us the money:’ Join us for a Feb. 3 event breaking down barriers for Black entrepreneurs

 Black businesses are crucial for the success of Black communities. But the abundance of Black talent is equaled only by the longstanding barriers Blacks face here and nationwide.

For example, “Even with a strong credit profile, Black entrepreneurs are about half less likely than their white counterparts to secure full financing. Black entrepreneurs start their businesses with an average of $35,000 of capital. White entrepreneurs start their businesses with an average of $107,000 of capital.” https://www.bankrate.com/loans/personal-loans/financial-support-for-black-owned-businesses/

The Black entrepreneurs working out of the Enterprise Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Winston-Salem with the S.G. Atkins CDC are changing that scenario. On Feb. 3, they’ll join key partners in continuing that journey with a public event. The partners are the Winston-Salem Black Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Center of Forsyth Technical Community College, and the Women’s Business Center of the Enterprise Center.

The event will include keynote speakers Stanley Green, https://powerthinkingcorp.com/, an author, motivational speaker and expert in resilience training; and Nancy St. Jacobs, Vice-President, Emerging Markets, Multi-Cultural Banking Leader, of Truist Bank.  There will also be "Show Me The Money" panel discussions with financial institutions and Community Development Financial Institutions along with subjects including grants for businesses and representatives from the Winston-Salem Small Business Loan Program, NC IDEA, and the Forsyth County Community and Economic Development Department.

“We are focusing on ways to get talented Black entrepreneurs equal access to the start-up capital that others have so long enjoyed,” said Carol Davis of Winston-Salem State University, who leads the Enterprise Center and its backing force, the S.G. Atkins Community Development Corp.  “We will have banks, city programs, and nonprofit grantors.  There will be speed-dating at the end where businesses can sit down with the funders and talk about their funding needs. At the Enterprise Center and the SGA CDC, we have made strong progress toward breaking down the economic barriers, but there remains a long way to go, a journey that we must make together.”

The Feb. event will run from 8:30 am to 3 p.m. To register, please go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-business-summit-where-access-to-capital-and-small-business-meet-registration-513105190437?aff=ebdssbdestsearch