CEED: Focus Group Takeaways
CEED conducted a focus group with randomly selected entrepreneurs from the 12th Street and Southwest Little Rock business districts. This focus group provided powerful insights into the challenges entrepreneurs of color face as they navigate Little Rock’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Sentiments of frustration around access to knowledge capital and seed capital were prevalent. Included in those frustrations were concerns with the reputation of long-standing Black business corridors like 12th Street and Southwest Little Rock. Despite this testimony, participants shared a spirit of resilience, pointing to progress in those persistent entrepreneurs of color who work consistently to defy the odds.
A firm’s ability to survive hinges on its regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. Higher quality ecosystems shelter ventures, while ventures in weaker ecosystems are more likely fade away and fail.
— Professor Phillip Kim
Focus Group Fact Sheet
What About Access to Capital?
“I always get turned down. Who else do you go to? You have to build your own capital. That’s just the only way to do it. Currently, I’m a part of a Black investment group but even that is a slow process.”
Can’t Knock the Hustle
“We are now starting to speak to the struggles that people have, and a lot of what you see in the Black community is that people treat their businesses like hustles more than actually trying to take the proper steps to legitimize their business and make good, solid products and services. The Black community struggles with putting together the paperwork and plans to properly execute their business, build a model and the proper team.”
Nevertheless, They Persisted
“The Black entrepreneurs or business owners in Southwest and on 12th street are creating their own solutions because the readily available resources aren’t available to them. From creating businesses to thrive in retail to those that change the narrative of their own community, to demonstrating excellence in customer service and organizing capital because you can’t get access to capital through financial institutions.”
Shifting the Narrative, Building Community
“We have to do a better job of not allowing someone else to tell our story. I started my business in Little Rock because it was needed. I wanted to build something that was service-based, impactful and something that I wanted to see in my community. My company fills a void that was in the market that I thought I could solve.”
What do Entrepreneurs of Color Need and Want?
“I think we need a safe haven for Black entrepreneurs. Space where we can network, have our meetings. We can encourage collaboration, host different types of events, have access to different technologies that we may need. We do have access to spaces like the Innovation Hub but that’s not Black-owned. I mean we can definitely go there but it’s not ours. So having that type of space in our communities that’s for us.”
