How to Support Black-Owned Businesses and Brands

by Margaret Moseley June 24, 2021

Supporting woman-owned and black-owned businesses not only yields a huge impact for the business world, but also socially, demonstrating the ability for these communities to be as successful or more than other business leaders you might support on a daily basis. This support helps these businesses thrive and spreads their popularity throughout the community. It is our responsibility to shop these businesses and ensure their success so black-owned businesses can continue to thrive in the future. There are a multitude of ways for us to support black-owned businesses and some are provided for you below.

Shop for black owned businesses: In many circumstances, black owned businesses will not widely be known. So, it is your responsibility to search for black owned businesses in your areas. To do this, if you are shopping for certain things that you don’t need from a specific chain, you should search to see if black owned businesses have it around you.
Take advantage of online shopping: If there aren’t black businesses around you or ones that meet your certain needs, use social media or the internet to find businesses further from your local area and have the products shipped to you. This is also a great way to reach black owned businesses on a national scale.
Promote and share black owned businesses on social media: If you find a great black owned business, share it! You can do this through verbally telling people, but to reach a larger audience you can share the business on your social media accounts. This will gain more traffic to their websites and social media pages, which will hopefully bring more business.

While taking these small steps every day can help support black businesses, there are also other larger goals that need to be addressed. For example, funding and mentorship opportunities should be provided for black owned businesses and black entrepreneurs. It is extremely important to give both current and future black entrepreneurs the sufficient tools to know how to operate a business and take it to the next level. In addition to this, these opportunities could increase the success rates of their businesses, and younger black women will be more willing to start their own businesses as well. This example of a larger and less day-to-day action is just as important because these blacked owned businesses don’t yield the same funding that many white businesses obtain from large corporations, venture capital firms, and angel investors. In fact, less than 1% of venture capital goes to black businesses.

You are bringing a huge impact when supporting black owned businesses. It shows you that support businesses that align with your values and that you want to create that societal and corporate change.

For business owners:

Your work inspires people on a national scale to start their own businesses and pave way for more people of color in the corporate world. You should continue to keep your momentum, even after the struggles of the past year with the Covid-19 pandemic. To do this, you should build your network in an authentic way. Companies and individuals are more inclined to support black businesses than in the past. So, right now is a great time to create new relationships, including ones through media as well as investors. Your network is your net worth. LinkedIn is also a great resource to build relationships with others and grow your business as well.