Black-owned businesses hit especially hard

Hindered by limited access to resources

The statistics are dire — Black-owned businesses are being hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic shutdown it prompted.

But some south suburban Black entrepreneurs say they are battling back by revamping their operations.

The number of active Blackowned businesses in the U.S. plummeted 41% during the early months of the pandemic from February to April, more than twice the 17% level of white owned businesses. That is according to research by Robert Fairlie from the University of California Santa Cruz that is based on government data.

There are multiple reasons for the disproportionate impact on Black-owned businesses.

“A lot of them are concentrated in industries that were most immediately impacted by the pandemic,” said Lotika Pai. She is managing director of Access to Capital at the Chicago-based Women’s Business Development Center, which provides technical assistance and loans to small businesses, the majority of which are minority-owned. Among industries most affected by the pandemic have been service and retail businesses.

Tasha Brown, associate director of the Illinois Small Business Development Center at the WBDC’s Richton Park office, estimates she has worked with more than 100 clients since the pandemic began, 95% of whom are African American business owners. When the pandemic started, she feared Black businesses would be hard hit.

“It’s even worse than I expected,” she said. “The biggest impact on them has been the lack of sufficient resources.”

For many seeking government-funded COVID-19 loans

SHAHIDAH SWIRE “I’ve had to change my whole mindset,” said Shahidah Swire, owner of Oak Forest-based Those Fitness Chicks, as the pandemic forced her to stop most of her in-person services.