With DEI efforts being rolled back at large retailers around the country, here’s how to support your favorite Black-owned small businesses.
As we close out Black History Month, we wanted to shine a spotlight on one sector of the population that needs our support more than ever: Black female small business owners. Although Black women make up less than 10% of the U.S. population, they’ve emerged as the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the country.
On this week’s episode of the HerMoney Podcast, Jean Chatzky is joined by Tiffany Dufu, President of the Tory Burch Foundation and author of Drop the Ball: Achieving More By Doing Less. Tiffany shares the best ways to support Black women-owned businesses right now.
The Rise of Black Women Entrepreneurs
Jean Chatzky: According to the Brookings Institution, between 2017 and 2020, the number of Black women-owned small businesses increased by nearly 20%, far exceeding the growth of women-owned businesses and Black-owned businesses overall. What is responsible for this, what have things looked like since 2020?
Tiffany Dufu: This rate of Black women starting businesses was actually on the rise before the pandemic. We all know that entrepreneurship is a vehicle for economic mobility, for autonomy, for power. And when we look historically at the ways that people in this country have been able to achieve economic power, entrepreneurship is really the last remaining accessible one.
Tiffany Dufu: The others are wealth transfer, which not everyone has access to, homeownership, retirement savings, and then entrepreneurship. So it just remains a more accessible pathway to economic security. And even though starting a business is one of the hardest, most ambitious things that you can do, it does represent freedom in so many ways.
The Challenges of Scaling a Small Business
Jean Chatzky: Last year, women started half of all the new businesses in the U.S., but most of these businesses remain small. Only 1.9 percent of women-owned businesses ever reach a million or more in revenues. What’s actually going on here? Why is that mark so difficult?
Tiffany Dufu: It’s a challenging milestone for all businesses, but women do face particular barriers. As you can imagine, one barrier is access to capital, which can often be an accelerator. For a business, there’s also this idea of networks playing a significant role, and a lot of it is connected to the ecosystem of experts, mentors, advisors and thought leaders who are helping to support them.
Tiffany Dufu: Starting a business is almost like building a pile of Legos that you’ve never built before. As soon as you build one pile, you’ve got to move on to the next pile of Legos that you need to build. Having access to networks and people who can help you navigate those piles of Legos can help you grow your business faster. But there are many levers working together to hopefully change this.
How to Support Black-Owned Businesses in 2025
Jean Chatzky: In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Black-owned small businesses saw more support than ever, with big brands like Target promising to put Black brands on shelves. Lately, we’re just not seeing as much of that. So, how do you think we can best support the Black-owned businesses that we want to see stick around and grow?
Tiffany Dufu: It’s so important to support Black businesses and people are feeling really uncertain right now, but small business is the backbone of this country. I know that Google, Amazon, and Microsoft get a lot of attention on the CNBC ticker, but most people are employed by and are dependent upon small businesses.
Tiffany Dufu: So if you have the ability to, go direct and buy from a Black business. If you don’t have the ability to do that or you can only get access by going into a [large retail] store, by all means, go into the store and buy that product off of the shelf because that’s still helping that business. Even though you might not agree with the policies or the politics of the larger retail chain, it keeps the supply system diverse so it says something.
MORE ON HERMONEY:
- 9 Black Women Entrepreneurs Reveal Keys To Supporting Each Other
- 10 Ways to Support Black-Owned Businesses
- HerMoney Podcast Episode 431: 5 Ways to Save Money From The Broke Black Girl
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