Watch: A conversation on post-pandemic recovery for Black-businesses

On Tuesday, September 14, Axios markets reporter Courtenay Brown and business reporter Hope King discussed the economic recovery of Black-owned small businesses, featuring Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) and U.S. Black Chambers President & CEO Ron Busby. 

Rep. Joyce Beatty addressed how the Congressional Black Caucus and Congress are working together to help Black-owned businesses in a post-pandemic era, the primary challenges that the Black-owned business community endured during the pandemic, and how unemployment rates among Black communities vary across the nation. 

• On government efforts to provide financial relief to small businesses: “When we think about the value of the Congressional Black Caucus and how we had to work with them, many of us small business owners, I know firsthand as a former small business owner how hard it is to make payroll in a normal time. Here’s the good news: 95% of the Biden-approved PPP loans went to small businesses with 20 or less employees, and that was very helpful.” 
• On consistently disparate unemployment rates in Black communities: “When we hear, 'Oh, unemployment has gone down and people are working,' well, those numbers were never the same for minority-owned businesses, especially Black-owned businesses. The numbers were always double, and we’re still dealing with that.” 

Ron Busby illustrated the progress of Black small businesses in post-pandemic recovery, how efforts from Federal entities and the private sector have assisted in that recovery, and what types of aid he believes are most essential in helping Black-owned small businesses thrive. 

• On the current state of recovery for Black-owned businesses: “Businesses that are owned by African-Americans and Black people across the country are starting to feel extremely optimistic about the future, but the challenges still exist. The number one challenge for Black-owned businesses is obviously access to capital.” 
• On adjusting government-run initiatives to better serve Black communities: “We had to go back and make sure that we adjusted those packages, those stimulus opportunities, to make sure that our Black businesses could participate. As you see new programs being rolled out, you’ll see that the US Black Chamber is there to make sure that small, diverse, and primarily Black firms are included in the conversation, as well as being included in the stimulus packages.”  

Axios SVP of Events & Creative Strategy Kristin Burkhalter hosted a View from the Top Segment with Facebook’s Vice President of Business Engineering and Partner Solutions, Alvin Bowles, who discussed how Facebook is supporting Black-owned businesses through various digital exposure initiatives. 

• “It’s just important to note that individuals are trying to leverage the digital economy to be able to actually decrease that distance between innovation and execution, and trying to figure out the best way to be able to leverage opportunities to have individuals discover their businesses. We feel like there’s an enormous responsibility that we have. As we head into this holiday season, it’s now more important than ever to really focus on the discovery economy and that every good idea deserves to be found.”  

Thank you Facebook for sponsoring this event.