Our nation is facing a large racial gap in business ownership between the wealth of whites and that of people of color. In addition to the gap in wealth, the fact that large segments of the US lack savings or wealth is drawn upon the weather, financial shocks or to invest in the future. This poses a growing challenge in a nation that is increasingly ethnically and racially diverse.
Business ownership is a route to wealth creation, a particularly important and valued route in a capitalist economy. As such, it is important to understand the role that it plays in wealth creation for people of color and to identify and pursue strategies for addressing the challenges facing entrepreneurs of color.
SEI Small Business Segment will include a feature of small black businesses and how they came to be. This can either be done weekly or bi-weekly. This helps with partnership, bridging the gap of marketing for small businesses.
Financial assets for Latino and African Americans are relatively at lower levels, which provides greater diversification and higher average returns over time than tangible assets such as homes and cars. According to the Federal Reserve Board of St. Louis, Hispanic and black America has levels of net worth that are only one-tenth of those held by white Americans, and fewer of their assets are in the form of business assets.
White and Asian Americans hold one third of their assets in business and financial assets, Hispanics, and black hold only 15 percent and 8 percent, respectively, of their wealth in these forms. The lower levels of wealth contribute to two factors: lower rates of business ownership and the fact that minority owned businesses, on average, are smaller.
Minority owned businesses are smaller normally because of the market and industry.