Black Entrepreneurs NYC (BE NYC)

Black-owned businesses are an essential part of the fabric of New York City; beyond offering goods and services, they're often used as event and meeting spaces after hours, and share information about critical resources with the community. Supporting our City's Black-owned small businesses will help reduce the racial wealth gap and contribute to our City's economic recovery.

BE NYC hosts webinars and events on a variety of topics tailored for Black entrepreneurs.

BE NYC Startup Intensive is a free, 40-hour intensive instructional course based on the FastTrac® curriculum that provides Black entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills they need to launch and run successful businesses in NYC.

A partnership between SBS’s BE NYC initiative and Volunteers of Legal Services (VOLS) provides free legal services to NYC’s Black entrepreneurs and underserved communities. By leveraging VOLS’s dedicated network of staff and pro bono volunteer attorneys, the partnership connects New York City business owners to one-on-one free transactional legal education, advice, and representation on business formation, contracts, taxes, intellectual property, human resources, and other emergent issues. Additionally, VOLS organizes clinics and educational workshops on a range of legal challenges faced by entrepreneurs.

Interested business owners should fill out this form to get started, join upcoming BE NYC events, and call SBS's Small Business Hotline (888-SBS-4NYC) for more information.

To define the direction of the initiative, we combined insights from historical research, scholarly articles, public data and, most importantly, the voices of more than 1,500 Black entrepreneurs, business leaders, community leaders, and advocates from every borough and across industries. They told us about their motivations for starting a business, challenges, needs, and how the city can help. Although COVID-19 had significantly changed the economic landscape, the top needs we heard from Black entrepreneurs remain the same: access to capital, lack of business background and reliable resources, finding customers, affordable workspace, and networking.

The report highlights the challenges Black entrepreneurs face when starting and growing their businesses and offers solutions through public-private partnerships. The recommendations, created in conjunction with the public, private, philanthropic, and non-profit sectors will help achieve the following goals:

1. Provide equitable access to financing
2. Strengthen connections within NYC's Black entrepreneurial community
3. Scale Black businesses for long-term success
4. Meet the challenges of the economy of tomorrow 

Through the four pathways outlined above, BE NYC aims to increase the number of Black-owned businesses in New York City, with a focus on growing businesses in high-growth industries.

You Do It With Your Heart highlights the economic power of Black New Yorkers and the cultural significance of Black-owned businesses, which have long been a cornerstone of New York City neighborhoods. In this multimedia series, Black business owners shared their backgrounds, and discussed how they have been affected by the economy, COVID-19, and growing gentrification. Their oral histories play over stunning images taken by the NYC Commission on Human Rights' Public Artist in Residence, renowned photographer Andre D. Wagner.