SHOP SMALL SUPPORT THE “INVISIBLE ECONOMY” SMALL (BLACK) BUSINESS SATURDAY ONLY ON SHOP BLACK ENTERPRISE® November 27, 2022
Small Business Saturday is is a one-day, annual event that takes place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. every November. It was created to encourage consumers to shop locally in person and online at small businesses. Why is it so important to shop small on Saturday November 27 on Shop Black Enterprise? There are only nine publicly traded companies owned by black entrepreneurs in the US–just 9! We desperately need to build scale and support small black entrepreneur’s businesses to grow them and augment this terrible racial imbalance. It is no accident, so shop Black Small on November 27, 2022
But what’s missing and quite significant isn’t over that easy why do we need to support small black businesses? There are only 134,567 Black-owned employer businesses (businesses with more than one employee) in all sectors of the U.S. economy. Can you believe this?
There are about 3,115,000 non-employer businesses with Black owners (according to the Census Bureau’s 2018 NES-D). This is critically important to understand the true plight of black small businesses in the US; they are 97% sole proprietorships. They are not the companies identified as “small” by the Small Business Administration. Their definition of “small” isn’t small at all. It is a business with less than 500 employees and $5 million in annual sales. The SBA is so out of touch with nearly all small black business–small black businesses aren’t even on their radar. This is where Shop Black Enterprise® and SORC® Radio Network (pronounced like source) can step in.
Here are some statistics from the 2020 US census:
- Small businesses make up 99.9% of all U.S. businesses but a minority of the workforce. They employ less than half of the workforce -- 47.3%, or 59.9 million people
- Black people comprise approximately 14.2% of the U.S. population, but Black businesses comprise only 2.2% of the nation’s 5.7 million employer businesses (firms with more than one employee).
- 2.2% of Black-owned businesses have employees, compared to 30.6% of white-owned businesses.
- Black adults are much more likely to be unemployed, and black businesses are much more likely to hire black workers. This shortage of black businesses throttles employment and the development of black communities and employer based businesses.
- The underrepresentation of Black businesses is costing both the local and national economy millions of jobs and billions of dollars in unrealized revenues..
- Black-owned businesses are far less likely to attract outside funding.
Making the invisible economy visible, supporting and making it part of a vibrant stream of generational wealth is the key to building equality and the future of Black/Minority business. This is why small black businesses need your support more than ever on Small Business Saturday. This event represents a significant opportunity to increase sales for black and minority businesses during the holiday shopping season. In 2011, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution supporting Small Business Saturday. The event has since grown nationwide, with participation in all 50 states.
First and foremost, this event is intended to encourage consumers to shop at small and locally owned businesses. That includes retail stores and restaurants as well as other small businesses, such as salons, grocery stores, and service-based businesses. It also extends to small businesses that exist online and home based products and services too. The concept was first introduced by American Express in 2010 as a way to put small businesses in the spotlight amid the recession that occurred following the 2008 financial crisis.
Small Business Saturday is also a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which feature big box retail and e-commerce stores respectively. But how are black businesses to compete on the year’s biggest tech sales day when they are literally non-existent? Crunchbase reported last year, companies in the U.S. raised nearly $150 billion in venture capital, but Black startup founders received less than 1% of that total. The number of Black decision-makers at VC firms — that is, the people who take the pitches and can write the checks — also hovers around 1%
Small Business Saturday started by American Express obviously wants to support brick & mortar businesses because those businesses have shoppers who may use their American Express card. Most real small black businesses on line or home based do not so they are again excluded from a national sales day. But not at Shop Black Enterprise and SORC Radio. SBE and SORC encourages holiday shoppers to not only patronize brick and mortar businesses that are small and local but very small online black businesses, many of which are part of the “Invisible Economy” made up primarily of black and minority businesses that need shopper support this holiday season so they aren’t overshadowed by larger companies.