By James “Bird” Guess – Dallas South News Contributor
The Mayor’s Southern Dallas Task Force Small Business Committee is a group of Dallas community and business leaders who conducted extensive research for roughly five months. Recently they presented their report outlining programs and initiatives they identified to spark small business development in South Dallas.
In the final proposal to the City Council, city staff, and citizens of Dallas, it was recommended via a variety of initiatives “the city of Dallas must be proactive in assisting the growth and expansion of small business and the promotion of entrepreneurship.” One of the main initiatives of their proposal was access to capital and to “encourage use of improved Small Business Administration loan products (reduced fees, and 90% guarantees).”
I believe access to capital is not fundamentally the issue, instead it’s about “meeting the criteria to obtain capital,” that is one of biggest obstacles for many South Dallas aspiring entrepreneurs and Black American entrepreneurs nationwide.
As a former consultant for the Small Business Administration (SBA) funded-Dallas Small Business Development Center (SBDC), I counseled and assisted emerging entrepreneurs with development of their business plans and helped them obtain start-up capital. Over 60 percent of the clients the Dallas SBDC serves are Black Americans seeking assistance in obtaining start up capital.
Although many had developed innovative and sound business models, a great majority lacked the credit, capital contribution, and cash flow required by lenders such as Wells Fargo, Accion, and Chase Bank, who were eager to make loans. Once they determined the SBA could not secure financing for their businesses due to not meeting lending criteria, many of grew discouraged. With their spirits broken, for many their twenty page plus business plans were placed back on the shelf.
In South Dallas there are only roughly 500 small businesses. Almost half of those are sole proprietorships or have between one and four employees, and the jobless rate is roughly 65 percent. If the City of Dallas really desires to facilitate entrepreneurship in South Dallas, they must promote and support entrepreneur education.
There must be a new commitment to provide entrepreneur educational development and preparation programs with a focus on assisting new entrepreneur’s efforts to meet bank/lender criteria. Then they can successfully launch their businesses.
The residents of South Dallas have ample creativity and innovative business ideas that would thrive in the community. As banks like Comerica open new branches in South Dallas there will clearly be access to capital.
We must now help cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit and continue to prepare the entrepreneurial residents of South Dallas to capitalize on the business ownership opportunities that are long overdue to this community.
James “Bird” Guess is a motivational/empowerment speaker & the founder of The $chool of Money & Wealth. He can be reached at james@schoolofmoneyandwealth.com
Edited by R. Ferguson
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