Businesses owned by women and minorities are an important part of the economy. According to an article by Lendio on minority-owned businesses, “there are over 4 million minority-owned businesses in the United States, with sales totaling $700 million.” Also, according to an article by Metlife, “42 percent of all businesses in the U.S. are female founded. And they’ve been growing more than twice as fast as other businesses in the past five years.” Here we discuss how you can support women- and minority-owned businesses to help them grow and be successful.
Purchase from Them
One of the best ways to support minority and women-owned businesses is to purchase products, services, or gift certificates from them. Research to find out what business are owned by women or minorities and do your shopping with them. Follow women and minority-owned business hashtags on social media. Once you have purchased from these businesses, you can also help them by leaving reviews for them online on sites such as Google and Yelp. You can also interact with them on their social media channels and recommend them on your social media platforms and to your contacts.
Form Partnerships
Building partnerships with minority- and women-owned businesses can lead to great collaborations. For example, instead of getting supplies or products from large brands, you can get them from local businesses run by minorities and women. Not only does this help them, but it also helps your business by reducing shipping and handling costs and shipping time. In addition, it also helps to support your local community.
Promote their Products and Services
There are various ways you can help promote the products and services of minority- and women-owned businesses. For example, you can create a social media post that mentions a great customer experience you had with one of these businesses. You can also share information about them in your newsletters or in blog posts.
One idea for a blog post is to create a post that features 5 minority- or women-owned businesses in your city and links to those businesses. Then let the businesses know that you have mentioned them in your blog. They will be happy to share this with their audiences. The result is they will get exposure for their businesses while you will get backlinks to your website. It’s a win-win! Another idea is to partner with these businesses for events.
Make a Donation
Making donations to help minority- and women-owned businesses can go a long way in helping them to stay in business and grow since they may not be getting enough support. For instance, according to the article by Metlife:
“Women receive less than half the average investment amount as companies owned by men. Also, those loans tend to be shorter term and have higher interest rates, making it more likely for women to have to self-finance their companies.”
Another way to support women- or minority-owned businesses is to donate to organizations that provide loans to them. In addition to supporting those who are already in business, you can also help to support young minorities and women who are interested in entrepreneurship and business.
Volunteer Your Time
With your help, minority- and women-owned businesses can more easily open, stay afloat, and grow. But financial support is not the only way you can help. You can also volunteer your time by providing free consultations or mentoring in your area of expertise. As an experienced business owner, you can help businesses in various areas such as networking, marketing, sales, hiring employees, accounting, and more.
There are various organizations such as SCORE you can join to help support businesses by offering sponsorships or by volunteering. Your local chamber of commerce can also be a great place to find opportunities such as the sponsorship of businesses. In addition to helping minority- and women-owned businesses, you will also be building valuable relationships in your community.
CH Consulting Group is dedicated to helping minority- and women-owned businesses in a variety of ways. We’d love to hear what you’re doing!
