As we celebrate Black Business Month 2020, let’s look at the state of Black businesses owned by women in the United States.
In the 2020 State of Small Business report from Guidant Financial and the Lending Club, “There are more female African-American small business owners than the general population of business owners. In the American small business universe, 27% of small businesses are women, among African-American owned businesses, 35% are women.”
The American Express 2019 State of Women-Owned Businesses report has slightly different numbers about African-American/Black women-owned businesses. The report shows:
- Number of businesses: 2,681,200 . That’s 21% of all women-owned businesses, making it the largest segment of women-owned businesses after non-minority women.
- Growth rate: Grown at an annual rate for the past year of 12% compared to an 8% annual growth rate between 2014 and 2019. Represents the highest rate of growth of any group in the number of firms between 2014 and 2019 and between 2018 and 2019.
The concerning statistic in this report is about earned average revenue. African-American businesses owned by women earned an average $24,000 per firm vs. $142,900 among all women-owned businesses. This gap, says the report, is “the greatest of any minority [group].”
According to digitalundivided’s Project Diane 2018 report, The State of Black Women Founders ( the report is issued every two years) the number of startups founded by Black women more than doubled from 2016 to 2018—to less than 4%. But that’s small compared to the percentage of Black women in the U.S. (14% of women in the U.S. are Black). Nearly half of all African-American women-led startups were in California and New York.
In fact, according to BlackBusiness.com, New York state has the most (regardless of gender of owner) Black-owned businesses—-204,093—which is 10.6% of the businesses in the state, followed by Georgia, Florida and Texas. However, Washington DC has the highest percentage of Black-owned businesses in the country with 28%.
Remember to #BuyBlack in August during the National Black Business Month and everyday throughout each year.
Gwinnett Black Business Resource
Gwinnett County Black Chamber of Commerce is an excellent resource for Black business owners located in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Visit https://blackchambergwinnett.com for more information on the chamber.
