New Survey Finds Black and Women Small Business Owners Have Increased Revenue Despite Recession

A new survey found that many Black-owned and women-owned small businesses are seeing an increase in sales despite the recession, according to ABC6.

According to the senior vice president of Bank of America, Carol Lee Mitchell, female business owners expect their revenues to increase even more over the next year.

“In fact 63 percent of our women business owners are telling us that they expect revenues to increase over the course of the next 12 months. And that includes our minority business owners,” she said.

Bank of America‘s 2022 Women and Minority Business Owner Spotlight also found that 87 percent of Black business owners are committed to promoting social change through their businesses. That commitment led to 34 percent of Black business owners announcing they’ve increased their customer base. Forty-seven percent of women small business owners plan also to expand their businesses over the next 12 months.

Consumer Reporter Nydia Han says that driving social change has paid off handsomely for businesses.

“Driving social change is really paying off for them,” said Han.

Mitchell added that standing up for a cause is also helping businesses to thrive.

“It’s not just about driving sales and revenue but it’s also standing up for a cause and a purpose, a greater purpose. That means a lot to the individual as well as to the community,” Mitchell said.

The survey also found that 60 percent of female entrepreneurs taught themselves how to start and own their own businesses, and 71 percent of women small business owners said that they feel able to handle a recession. Gabrielle Taylor began her business in August of 2020 during the pandemic to help senior citizens stay out of nursing homes. Her business, By Your Side Home Care in Pennsylvania, helps people to stay in their homes by providing elder care. Taylor said that the pandemic helped her to be innovative.

“It forced us to kind of think outside the box or change the norms of how we normally would run the business,” she said. “By creating these care plans we are able to allow them to basically age in place.”

A 2021 survey published in the Harvard Business Review also found that Black women are more likely to start a business than white men.