New directory creates growth opportunities for BIPOC-owned businesses
One of the most difficult challenges for small businesses, particularly minority-owned businesses, is finding a customer base and funding sources that support growth. A new tool has made significant progress in bridging those gaps over the past year.
Launched in the fall of 2022, the Flint & Genesee Business Bridge is an online directory of Black and Indigenous and/or person of color (BIPOC)-owned businesses aimed at connecting business owners with potential customers of all sizes. The Business Bridge also allows participating members to bid on non-government contracts, network with other businesses, get access to unique training opportunities or events, and grow overall connections.
“At its core, the Business Bridge is about connecting people,” said Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance, a division of Flint & Genesee Group. “We’ve heard from our larger companies and organizations, who have said that they want to ensure they’re working with BIPOC-owned businesses. This helps them do that. At the same time, it helps these businesses get access to customers, contracts and resource providers.”
The virtual directory connects minority-owned businesses with potential customers, including large institutions like hospitals or universities that can often be hard for small or new businesses to form connections with. Staff from the Economic Alliance conducted one-on-one outreach and recruitment directly to business owners to encourage participation and registration with the free directory. They also partnered with Ebonie Gipson, owner of I’m Building Something Consulting, to focus directly on engagement and recruitment of businesses from north Flint.
“We know that people are interested in doing more business with minority-owned businesses but don’t always know where to look,” Gipson said. “This is truly a collaborative effort. The Flint & Genesee Business Bridge is the place for businesses to be seen and found.”
The directory launched as an offshoot of pandemic-related assistance. In 2020, in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Flint & Genesee Group spearheaded a grant program called Restart Flint & Genesee to provide restart funds to local businesses. A Ruth Mott Foundation grant to support the program was directed toward Black-owned businesses that were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The Flint & Genesee Group surveyed local minority-owned businesses asking for feedback on their experience accessing contract opportunities and the greatest challenges to sustaining and growing their business. The top three challenges identified were: access to capital/ financing, access to contracts/customers, and overall operations costs. Survey results also reflect that 69 percent of respondents were interested in learning about how to secure contracts, while only nineteen percent had actually been contracted for goods and services.
Soon after, the seeds of the business directory project were planted and the Ruth Mott Foundation was proud to grant $95,000 in 2021 to fund the creation of the directory under the Foundation’s economic opportunity priority area.
“Business owners make a remarkable commitment to our community when they choose to open and maintain a small business. We’re proud to support the Business Bridge as a much-needed tool toward equitable economic opportunities.”
— RAQUEL THUEME
The Business Bridge kicked off in 2022 with a Small Business Expo that introduced prospective businesses to the tool and resources available through the Economic Alliance to help support business owners.
Support available through the Small Business Help Desk and other Economic Alliance staff include: technical assistance with directory enrollment; small business expo preparation activities (interview skills, business plan development, and how to pitch a business); and individual coaching related to capital (grants, loans, and equity programs), business planning, and establishing partnerships. Business Bridge members, who were not yet members of the Flint & Genesee Chamber were able to obtain a free trial membership.
In the first months of the tool, the Economic Alliance provided or supported the generation of 11 new contracts totaling more than $16,000 in new revenue for north Flint and other local minority-owned businesses. More than 100 people representing 60 small businesses attended the first expo, and more than 200 businesses are currently registered in the database.
Like other successful programs like the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation’s BuyDetroit and Detroit Means Business initiatives, the Business Bridge aims to provide vital support services to businesses while also eyeing opportunities to grow, particularly by increasing awareness of the tool among more large businesses and organizations that award contracts for services.
“Business owners make a remarkable commitment to our community when they choose to open and maintain a small business,” said Raquel Thueme, president of the Ruth Mott Foundation. “We’re proud to support the Business Bridge as a much-needed tool toward equitable economic opportunities.”
A searchable list of our grantmaking can be found at https://www.ruthmottfoundation.org/grants/.
