Pensacola-area Black and Latino business owners wanted for new small business loan program

A Pensacola area nonprofit is launching a new loan fund to help Black and Latino entrepreneurs grow businesses within low-and moderate-income communities throughout Northwest Florida.

Community Enterprise Investments Inc. received a $350,000 grant from Truist Foundation to establish the Impact Loan Fund for Black and Brown Entrepreneurs.

The Impact Loan Fund will help business owners of color receive capital, resources and support that they may not have not been able to access before.

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A 2022 study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies surveyed over 1,238 small-business owners nationwide about challenges they faced prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than half (58.1%) of Black respondents and over one-third (35.8%) of Latino business owners reported that they faced challenges obtaining needed capital, whereas less than one-fourth (24.2%) of their white counterparts reported facing similar challenges.

“When it comes to getting that capital that you need to scale it as you need to grow, to cover cash flow and operating costs, it then becomes a little challenging,” Grover Brown Jr., director of lending at CEII, said. “Because there aren't many lenders out there who will be able to take a startup business within the first two years and then be able to provide that capital that they need in order for them to take their business to the next level.”

Since 1982, CEII has developed single family homes and manages multifamily housing throughout Northwest Florida, while helping thousands of entrepreneurs to realize their dream of business ownership, lending over $20 million to small and micro business throughout North Florida and Alabama.

Established in 2020, the Truist Foundation makes strategic investments in nonprofit organizations to help ensure the communities it serves have more opportunities for a better quality of life. It determined a partnership with CEII was a perfect fit.

CEII provides small business lending throughout Northwest Florida and Alabama and has a primary mission to create and develop opportunities for housing and business ownership among low and moderate-income residents.

Community Enterprise Investments, Inc. (CEII) received the grant for its Impact Loan Fund, which targets business owners of color who have located their operations within low-and moderate-income communities throughout Northwest Florida. Truist Foundation wanted to best serve and invest in their communities and CEII was a perfect fit.

Product features of the Impact Loan Fund include a Short Term Loan Fund of $15,000 for business experiencing capital shortfalls; microloans up to $50,0000; and business counseling/training through “GrowthWheel” and the “Street MBA” series.

The Truist grants assists CEII's mission in two ways: it makes CEII become flexible in its lending standing as it can mitigate risks by giving to businesses who might not meet the standard requirements for lending but meet collateral requirements, as well as pays for a technical assistance officer who is there to work with that borrower to plan for future growth and success.

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This includes helping with financials such as profit and loss statements, a balance sheet and monitoring cash flow and also social media marketing and building their website.

The grant from the Truist Foundation will serve as the initial seed investment into the Impact Fundthat will be immediately leveraged to expand the fund to over $1 million.

Without these funds available business owners will go to non-traditional means such as online lenders with high interest rates, merchant cash advances, or utilize credit cards to finance their business such as in inventories or supplies.

Black and Latino entrepreneurs will be able to apply for the Impact Loan Fund which will go live on their website https://www.ceii-cdc.org/ within the next week.

“Those who are seeking to move into entrepreneurship, there is a great support system that is in place,” Brown said. “So I believe we're gonna definitely see growth when it comes to African Americans and Hispanics as we strive to close the wealth gap.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: CEII, Truist partner for Impact Loan Fund for minority entrepreneurs