There are more Black businesses across industries than ever before but the issue of receiving substantial funding continues to plague new owners. This National Black Business Month, SCORE, an accelerator for small businesses is encouraging Black executives to mentor young entrepreneurs to help them reach their goals.
A press release read that SCORE’s mission is to foster vibrant small business communities through mentoring and education with a focus on creating lasting change and sustainability. By matching small business owners with thriving executives in their industries, SCORE has seen significant success.
The company’s hope is to further diversify their roster of mentors to help meet the needs of Black, small business owners and help promote a more equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem. For the mentors who are already giving back through the company; the answers lie in simply being represented.
“Just look at the number of businesses started by people of color, and especially women of color. There is a movement that your talent can be poured back into,” said SCORE mentor Marvy Moore.
“Whatever you bring to the table, added with the resources from SCORE, you can be a tremendous resource to small businesses.”
As many Black entrepreneurs enter the world of business through self-funding and trial and error success, achieving true economic growth and longevity remains a hurdle.
Mentorship can also be hard to come by though many triumphant business owners attribute their achievements to valuable knowledge shared with them along the way. Olu Abney, who co-owns My College Tours and worked with SCORE to find a mentor to help scale his business, found a new way of viewing his consumers after being successfully paired with a Black executive.
“We don’t look to just have clients, we look to build long-lasting relationships,” he said.
“SCORE was essential in helping us realize this.”
SCORE is committed to ensuring the success of Black owned small business.
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