Roundtable Preview: Minority Business Owners Face Up to Challenges

CANFIELD, Ohio – Minority business owners face challenges, from access to capital to not being invited to the table where nonminority business owners sit.

That was some of the discussion Aug. 14 among eight minority business owners and representatives of financial institutions who gathered at the Courtyard by Marriott in Canfield for a roundtable convened by The Business Journal. The full transcript of the discussion will be printed in the mid-September issue.

Participants were Terrell Washington, owner/founder of Leaf Relief in Boardman; Lisa Robinson, owner of Show Stopper Landscaping in Youngstown; Vicki Hall, vice president and business banking officer at Consumers National Bank in Salem; DeShawn Scott, founder and CEO of The D5 Group in Warren; Ashlyn Symone Baker, owner of Signatures by Symone Brand Design Studio in Youngstown; Kelan Bilal, owner of Excalibur Barber and Grooming Salon in Boardman; Matthew Longmire, business resource manager at Valley Partners; and Juan Santiago, vice president and community development officer at Farmers National Bank.

Bilal, who opened the first Black-owned barber shop in the Southern Park Mall, said going into the mall was a challenge.

“To know that it had never been done, how people were going to accept us out there,” he said. “It definitely was a challenge watching people walk past daily. You could hear the talk, like, ‘Wow, that’s a Black business, a Black barber shop inside of the mall.’ They had never seen it.”

That’s something his business was able to overcome though. “The purpose was to bring diversity to what the mall was already,” Bilal said.

Patrons and staff number representatives of different races in an industry that’s traditionally been segregated.

Baker said she’s had to overcome many challenges.

“I’m young; I’m Black; and I’m a woman,” she said. “There’s always been an aspect of stand up taller, speak up louder, which is why I’m always somewhat flamboyant, in pink and purple.”

Baker said she’s learned to command a presence in a room. At networking events where she’s the only minority, for example, she makes sure she’s seen on an equal level.

She works to instill those ideas in young girls she mentors too.

Scott, of The D5 Group, an integrated marketing firm, said when he first started his business more than 10 years ago, he thought members of the Black community would be the ones to support him.

“If you look at our portfolio, it’s nothing like that,” he said. “And that’s OK. Money is green. I’m in business not to just be a magnet to people of color.”

The other side of the perceptions he’s faced come from suppliers or financial institutions with which he’s dealt.

While there are programs aimed at minority-owned businesses, Scott calls that a double-edged sword. He recalled one meeting where he was asked elementary questions. “The way they ask the questions is as if they believe you just woke up and decided to start a business,” he said.

“A lot of times, I think we get invited to the table [only] in February and June,” he said. Minorities aren’t invited to the table other times, Scott said.

Robinson, who’s been in business for 10 years, said she gets challenged as a woman and a landscaper.

“You never get enough funds for what you’ve got to do,” she said. “You get a little bit to throw you here and throw you there. But you’ve got to keep on with what you’ve got to do to make it.”

Then when an institution tells you you’re going to get a certain amount, you always get less than that, Robinson said.

“You’ve just got to keep knocking on those doors until you get where you need to go,” she said. “It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.”

Washington, whose business is a cannabis dispensary, agreed with the challenges other roundtable participants expressed.

“It’s tough to get into the room,” he said. “It’s tough to have a qualified voice in those rooms. You wonder if it is because of a quota. In some cases, you wonder if it’s, ‘We don’t value you as a minority, but we value your money.’”

Washington, the son of Herbert Washington, CEO of HLW Fast Track Inc., acknowledged that his family background puts him in a different situation than other panelists.

“That insulates me a little bit,” he said. “But there are a lot of people who can’t speak up because of the financial impact if they do.”

Santiago started in residential lending but has worked for the past seven years in community development, including with the community reinvestment act.

He said mentorship is key. “If you’re getting into something, look at someone who’s doing it and doing it well,” Santiago said. “And then have that person help guide you along the way.”

He and other lenders want to see businesses succeed, he said. That’s good for the businesses, the community and the bank.

It’s incumbent upon lenders to educate new business owners about programs that can help, Santiago said.

Longmire said that within Valley Partners is housed the Business Resource Center and the Minority Business Assistance Center.

“What makes up Valley Partners is we have 18 different loan programs, so we specialize in small business lending,” Longmire said.

Valley Partners provides free technical assistance. “We walk with our clients,” he said. He likened businesses to plants: They can’t fully grow without access to all of the needed resources. His organization works to ensure businesses have those resources.

Hall, of Consumers National Bank, has been a commercial lender for about 13 years and in banking for more than 40 years.

“I look at what I do as consultative, so to speak,” she said. “When a client comes to me, I try to advise them, connect them with the resources.”

That includes Valley Partners as well as the Sustainable Opportunity Development Corp. in Salem.

“When someone comes in, they have a dream. They have a vision,” Hall said. “And then I start talking to them. [I ask,] ‘Do you have a business plan? Do you have projections?’”

She then can connect that person to resources that will help them, she said.

Pictured at top: From left are Kelan Bilal, Terrell Washington, Vicki Hall, Lisa Robinson, Ashlyn Symone Baker, Juan Santiago, DeShawn Scott and Matthew Longmire.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.