‘Inclusivity Challenge’ To Help Minority-Owned Businesses Recover

The Iowa Small Business Development Center (SBDC) launched its Inclusivity Challenge to ensure minority business owners and entrepreneurs continue to be prosperous as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Its goal is to connect those underrepresented businesses with resources and networks.

Iowa’s state director for America’s SBDC Lisa Shimkat said it’s important to be proactive in helping businesses that are closing at a higher rate nationally. A study by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research found the number of minority business owners who dropped out of the business world was much higher than the number of white business owners.

It found “African-American businesses were hit especially hard experiencing a 41 percent drop. Latinx business owners fell by 32 percent, and Asian business owners dropped by 26 percent,” from Feb. to April of 2020.

“And so, you know, we could form a committee, we…

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