Bringing small businesses and government together to reduce barriers for entrepreneurs

Key takeaways

• The Alliance for Entrepreneurial Equity, or AEE, hosted a series of roundtables to advance solutions that entrepreneurs and local and federal officials agree will give disadvantaged small business owners opportunities to grow.
• Roundtable events in Atlanta, Houston, and Los Angeles, held in collaboration with Wells Fargo, have drawn influential leaders and small business experts from the public and private sectors.
• These unique discussions are the result of a longstanding collaboration between Wells Fargo, Third Way, and the National Urban League.

Not every entrepreneur has equal opportunity to pursue their business passion. That’s where policy plays a pivotal role. And at this table, small business owners have a seat to help shape policy solutions centered on their needs.

At roundtables hosted by the Alliance for Entrepreneurial Equity (AEE), a diverse group of entrepreneurs are exchanging experiences and ideas with local and federal elected officials and small business advocates to cut through the noise. The result? Real policy ideas that could make a difference to the bottom lines and success of small businesses, particularly those owned by entrepreneurs of color.

“These roundtables give us an opportunity to speak with business owners, to hear their stories firsthand, and to let their voices shape the solutions that are going to positively impact businesses,” said Imani Augustus, director of the AEE and a moderator for the meetings.

Roundtables in Atlanta, Houston, and Los Angeles have attracted mayors and members of Congress, including Texas Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and Los Angeles-area Reps. Judy Chu and Sydney Kamlager-Dove.

What do small businesses need help with? Here’s what they said.

Small business owners say their chief issue is a lack of capital. In fact, only about half of small business owners of color get the equity and credit they need, according to Michael Martino, head of Diverse Customer Segments for Consumer, Small and Business Banking at Wells Fargo.

The opportunity to expand via a loan needs to be easier to reach. That’s especially important for women of color, who have disproportionately opened or grown small businesses in recent years.

Today, bipartisan work may be uncommon, but Rep. Williams said supporting small businesses is an issue that appeals to everyone. In Williams’ home state of Georgia, 20% of businesses are Black-owned, far higher than much of the country, according to 2023 Federal Reserve datacited by AEE.

Once they start businesses, these budding entrepreneurs may need financing to scale.

“People need access to capital, and I’m on the committee that can make that happen. People need to be able to not just start a business, but to grow it and sustain it,” Williams told Atlanta roundtable participants.

Small business owners said they also need help navigating the financial system and the technical assistance to access resources. For example, Hispanic and Latino entrepreneurs who don’t speak or aren’t confident in their English may not feel comfortable banking or applying for assistance.

Programs like Wells Fargo’s roughly $420 million Open for Business Fund, which expanded access to capital and technical assistance, help address this need for capital. The fund worked through grants to community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, and other organizations to help them offer specialized training and financing to small business owners who may not otherwise qualify.

In addition, in 2022, Wells Fargo collaborated with Community Reinvestment Fund, USA to launch the Small Business Resource Navigator, an online portal that connects small business owners to potential financing options and technical assistance through CDFIs across the country. Since its launch in 2022, the Small Business Resource Navigator has connected more than 3,000 small businesses, a majority of whom self-identify as diverse, to potential credit opportunities and technical assistance services provided by CDFIs.

By visiting www.bizresourcenavigator.com and completing a short questionnaire, small businesses may be connected to CDFIs or business advisory resources tailored to their specific needs.

Businesses can do more than earn revenue. Mayor Dickens highlighted the fact that small businesses can create multigenerational wealth for entrepreneurs and their families.

One way of helping underserved businesses create wealth is through government contracting, despite a trend of federal dollars going to fewer small businesses. Half the number of small businesses received federal contracts compared with a decade ago, according to a House Committee on Small Business report.

The numbers are even more striking for women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color. Less than 10% of federal agency eligible contract funding goes to small, disadvantaged businesses, which includes Black- and Latino-owned firms, according to a White House analysis of U.S. Small Business Administration data. Less than 5% goes to women-owned small businesses.

Local action can give small businesses access to a global stage. Mayor Dickens has focused on supporting vendors at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest, as a tangible way to support women- and minority-owned businesses. In Los Angeles, Mayor Bass highlighted ProcureLA, a program to prepare small businesses to better compete for contracts, which will be important ahead of international events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The AEE roundtables work by localizing federal ideas or policies and bringing local ones like these to a national conversation.

“We’re trying to think: What can we scale up? What’s working that we need to multiply? What’s not working that we need to change at a federal level?” said Gabriel Horwitz, a senior vice president of Third Way and director of its Economic Program who served as a roundtable moderator.

Financial barriers aren’t the only things that stand between entrepreneurs and success. Cultural and educational barriers do, too. How can business owners get a loan or grant if they don’t understand the application?

“Education is critical to help business owners build and pass on generational wealth,” said Roby Schapira, director of Diverse Customer Segments for Small & Business Banking at Wells Fargo who was at AEE’s Houston roundtable.

Small business owners say they need help overcoming financial literacy hurdles. It may be especially true for women and people of color who launch businesses because they may not have family, mentors, or industry connections who can show them the way, according to data compiled by AEE (PDF).

Some of this work is already being done by the National Urban League and its local affiliates. Wells Fargo, a NUL corporate partner for more than 25 years, is the inaugural sponsor of its Entrepreneurship Center program, which prepares Black business owners for success. Wells Fargo has helped hundreds of women entrepreneurs through peer financial coaching via the Connect to More program, too.

Without venues like the AEE roundtables, policymakers may not otherwise hear about nontraditional issues that small businesses face like financial literacy.

“If you’re building policy in a vacuum, it’s not going to have the impact you want it to,” Horwitz said. “Wells Fargo is actually getting money into these businesses’ hands and as a policy group, we need to know what’s working and not working. That’s why our partnership has been really great.”

Small business owners are making their voices heard and leveraging valuable engagements with elected officials thanks to AEE’s roundtables. Now, Congress and the executive branch have an opportunity to take these ideas and make real change that crosses the partisan divide.

“By aligning government support with private sector innovation, we can ensure equitable entrepreneurship becomes a pathway to economic empowerment for all Americans,” said Rep. Kamlager-Dove, who attended the Los Angeles roundtable.

By pushing solutions, leaders in Washington can help the country’s most disadvantaged small business owners overcome financial barriers and find opportunities to start and grow their business. 

“To have the public and the private sector team up in these discussions, it becomes more than just about what Congress is doing,” Augustus said. “It becomes about finding real solutions and how they can be implemented and address businesses’ unique needs.”

For more information or to get involved in the AEE’s events, visit aeequity.org.