How Black-owned small businesses find support in smaller Massachusetts cities

Paris Alston: This is GBH is Morning Edition. Today kicks off the sixth annual Mass Black Expo at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Thousands of attendees are expected to go to panels and workshops focused on building Black wealth and hear from keynote speakers like Federal Reserve Bank President Susan M. Collins and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey. It’s all being put on by the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, also known as BECMA. We caught up with CEO Nicole Obi ahead of the event. And we’re also joined by Suzanne Graham Anderson, CEO of the Lifestyle Brand Positively Suzanne LLC, who will be speaking on a panel about the Black business ecosystem in cities beyond Boston.

Nicole Obi: This is a continuation of a panel that we had last year where we focused on the fact that there is a community of Black folks that are from Massachusetts, have been here for a while, whether it’s Black immigrants or Black Americans all across the Commonwealth. And in 2024, BECMA launched an ambassador program. And so this is a great opportunity for us to bring our ambassadors from across the state, outside of Boston, to share what’s going on in their respective areas, whether it’s in Springfield or Worcester or on the Cape and the islands. And so this panel is going to be focused on that community.

Alston: Suzanne, you are based in Worcester, the second-largest city in Massachusetts. Tell us more about the Black business landscape there from your perspective.

Suzanne Graham-Anderson: Being from Worcester, as you mentioned, the second largest city, I felt that there was not a lot of opportunities for small businesses. But I noticed this shift: In the past few years, more and more immigrant communities were popping up. There was a Caribbean population. There was — from Ghana, there was from Haiti. There were all these individuals from the Black diaspora that were opening businesses. And I truly felt that they didn’t have as much support. But I do feel that over the past few years, though, with organizations like BECMA, the diversity of the different businesses are being represented, and more and more they’re coming away from just being in their basement and actually having, you know, online presence, having brick and mortar, things like that. When I was researching, you know — as a small business owner, there was a lot of resources in Boston. And I made the hike to Boston. But a lot of times, you know, I tell folks, you know, come with me to Boston and they’re like, it’s so far away. We won’t debate that it’s only an hour, because for some people it’s a lot longer.

Alston: Not in prime-time traffic, it is not, right? Rush hour.

Graham-Anderson: Yeah. I mean, typically things happen during primetime traffic, right? There has been a few different organizations, you know, for the past few years, like EforAll, the small business development at Clark and CWE [Center for Women & Enterprise]. There are business incubators per se, they have been based in the Worcester market and they’re helping more and more small business. But I do believe that a majority of the resources are located in Boston. I will say, though, that the city of Worcester, you know, whenever these business incubators are there, they are supportive. You know, they show up. So there is pitch contest and multiple things that I think there are opportunities, but I think there’s still that hesitation for Black business owners to really, truly trust, like, okay, you are going to provide resources and network and funding and all that. But I think it is a continued opportunity. And as long as there’s places like BECMA that continues to push their agenda forward and their mission, I think that will continue to grow.

Alston: So, Nicole, there are so many places in Massachusetts that, beyond Boston, that have these burgeoning Black businesses and Black business economy. I’m thinking about Brockton because we know that this is the first city in New England with a majority-Black population. It’s also a place where Black and African Americans hold the highest median household income. But would you say, just as an example, that the city of Brockton has a proportionate, successful business landscape when it comes to Black-owned business owners?

Obi: I think Brockton, just like Worcester and Springfield and other areas of the Commonwealth, we’re all struggling to string together support. So one of the things that’s really important about the work that we’re doing to help businesses thrive is that it’s usually just not one single thing. It’s usually not just capital or a business plan or technical assistance in some way. And so what I like to do is think about being the sand between the rocks, and either filling a gap that nobody else is filling to help complete that thread of support or actually just knitting together existing resources that are available in Brockton and other areas. So for example, we recently this year had an event in Brockton around supplier diversity services at the restaurant Luanda. It’s not our first event. We’ve had multiple events over the years in Brockton where it’s one of the areas that we know that there are some great entrepreneurs and what they need is continuous and comprehensive support, and we’re trying to help to fill that gap.

Alston: And lastly, what do you hope people take away about the benefits of working with Black businesses across the state from this panel?

Obi: I would say for me at BECMA, our hope is to just elevate the awareness, especially with buyers, so whether they’re private companies or they’re governmental entities that, as Suzanne said, there are a lot of great companies out there. They’re ready to work in the Commonwealth. We talk about the workforce shortage quite a bit, but there are so many underutilized Black and brown firms that can help to fill that skills gap. And that’s what the Expo is really about, is making those connections and raising awareness about the opportunities to engage with in partner.

Alston: Well, that is Nicole Obi, who is the president and CEO of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts. Nicole, thank you so much.

Obi: Thank you.

Alston: And we were also joined by Suzanne Graham Anderson, the CEO of Positively Suzanne LLC. Suzanne, thank you as well.

Graham-Anderson: Thank you.

Alston: The Mass Black Expo takes place today and tomorrow at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. You can find out more info at BECMA.org. You’re listening to GBH News.