A survey of Black businesses in Greater Cleveland has formally captured what many have known for years: Getting access to capital remains a major obstacle. It is the same problem many of their counterparts nationally have.
Still, the results have been useful, say officials for The Presidents’ Council, which conducted the survey. This Black chamber of commerce for Northeast Ohio already had a lot of anecdotal information about the struggles of local Black businesses. Now, fueled by the survey’s findings, the council is seeking to help members get access to capital and other issues raised in the survey that can be crucial to a business’ success.
Nearly 30% of survey respondents said that not having access to capital was the biggest barrier to business growth. Inadequate cash flow was second at 20.5%, and concerns about hiring and people management came in third at 6.8%.
Our main goal is to put them in the rooms that make sense for them, and then they can go about making these meaningful connections,” Steele said. “Something can potentially come out of it – whether it’s a resource or a relationship that leads to a loan, a grant, or other funding that can help their business to flourish.”
Anthony Steele, the Presidents’ Council director of sales and marketing.
Ever since local business owners took the nonscientific survey last spring, The Presidents’ Council has held events designed to address some of the concerns raised, said Anthony Steele, the organization’s director of sales and marketing.
Among the issues that emerged in follow-up conversations with survey respondents is that they didn’t have relationships with bankers or other lenders. These entrepreneurs also often didn’t know the best ways to get loans and other funding.
So the council designed events to make those connections. At Meet Me in the Chamber: Banking After Hours, attendees had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with “bank decision-makers.” At The Standard: A Professional Development Forum, attendees got to learn about loans and other funding and also network.
“Our main goal is to put them in the rooms that make sense for them, and then they can go about making these meaningful connections,” Steele said. “Something can potentially come out of it – whether it’s a resource or a relationship that leads to a loan, a grant, or other funding that can help their business to flourish.”
The racial wealth gap undermines Black businesses’ access to capital
Increasing public and private funding to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which provide credit and financial services to underserved and low-income communities, is another option, the report says.
A 2025 report by the Brookings Institution, Reaping the Unrealized Gains of Black businesses,” is one of many in the last decade that have looked at why Black entrepreneurs often have difficulty accessing capital. It comes down to the racial wealth gap, the report found.
“[B]ecause Black Americans have lower levels of wealth, Black entrepreneurs typically have higher levels of debt, making it harder to acquire a loan to purchase property or start a business,” the Brookings report states. “A disproportional number of Black households are in debt: 18.9%, compared to their population share of 14.4%.”
More Black households are also carrying student loan debt, which affects overall debt, the report found. Black households hold 36% of student loan debt.
The report addresses ways to expand access to capital for Black entrepreneurs.They include having banks and other lenders expand credit scoring to not only include FICO scores but also factor in such things as payment history for rent and utilities. These “can provide a fairer and more transparent indication of risk,” because they show that the household paid bills, the report found.
Most Black businesses in Greater Cleveland are an owner without employees
The survey gives some some demographic information about Black businesses in Northeast Ohio:
- The overwhelming majority have five or fewer employees. At about 34%, the majority are run by the owner with no employees. Only about 21% have six or more employees. The Brookings report and other reports have found that most Black businesses nationally are also sole proprietorships.
- The overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs surveyed said that they have been in business for several years. Of those who took the survey, 64.1% have been in business for at least five years.
- The businesses represent an array of sectors, including professional/consulting, retail/e-commerce, construction, transportation, creative/media and education.
More than 32% of businesses taking the survey were in the professional/consulting category. Those in construction and skilled trades accounted for 17.9% of respondents. Retail/e-commerce was 12.8%
About 115 people took the online survey. Many of the respondents have participated in events such as Meet Me in the Chamber: Banking After Hours, Steele said.
Once they attend one event, they keep asking: “What’s next?”
