Last week, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced two key partnerships to its “My Brother’s Keeper Initiative” to raise awareness around entrepreneurship among undeserved groups.
“Successful new businesses in underserved communities are a source of hope and economic growth,” said Tameka Montgomery, SBA associate administrator for Entrepreneurial Development. “Small business ownership is often a path toward wealth creation. We must promote and encourage entrepreneurship for those who often are not aware of the vast resources available to support their entrepreneurial dreams.”
The SBA signed an agreement with the National Association of Guaranteed Government Lenders (NAGGL) to jointly develop a “Business Smart Toolkit,” aimed at local community leaders to help build on financial literacy and basic business assistance. The toolkit will contain a variety of small business and financial literacy topics that include business start-up basics, the essentials of becoming credit-ready and information and resources that provide small business support. The toolkit is intended as a “train-the-trainer” resource that will be available for download from the SBA Web site.
The SBA also signed an agreement with Muse Recordings to develop a series of video PSAs encouraging millennial entrepreneurship and providing increased awareness about SBA’s programs and services. Mike Muse, co-founder of Muse Recordings, will take part in the SBA’s Millennial Entrepreneurs Road Show and serve as SBA Millennial Entrepreneurs Champion.
“I am honored to serve as SBA’s My Brother’s Keeper Millennial Entrepreneurs Champion,” said Muse. “This incredible honor gives me an opportunity to connect with black and brown boys and young men around the country on entrepreneurship through the lens of lifestyle. Through this exposure, they will see themselves in careers they didn’t realize were possible. Letting them know, through practicality, there’s a path through entrepreneurship and that there is no failure of the imagination.”
The SBA launched its Millennial Entrepreneurs Road Show this week with its first SBA Millennial Trep Day event in Atlanta. The road show is a national tour of Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) to engage students and raise awareness about the possibilities of entrepreneurship. SBA Millennial Trep Day events will also be held in Los Angeles, Miami,
St. Louis, and the Washington, D.C. metro area. Additional information on upcoming SBA Millennial Trep Day events for each city will be announced. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.
