Chamber forms Minority Business Coalition to connect, strengthen minority business landscape in town
With the help of business owners in the city, the Chamber of Commerce is establishing the Minority Business Coalition to give a network for business owners to connect and represent the minority businesses in Owensboro.
Chamber President and CEO Candance Brake said they had noticed the growth in minority-owned and operated businesses in the area. With that, she said they wanted to find a way to combat the barriers minority businesses often face.
“It is vital to our economic growth that we do our part to grow and nurture these ventures as we continue to build a community business culture based on innovation and entrepreneurship,” she said.
Owner of The Party Space Place and co-owner of Something Borrowed Allyson Sanders said that through Brake’s intuition and the growth they were seeing, the coalition ultimately was needed, as Brake said.
“While we look forward to the day where we won’t need to have coalitions such as this, the fact is that they are needed. We are thrilled to be a part of this effort and look forward to celebrating more successful business stories of all of our members,” Brake said.
The coalition is modeled after other coalitions in metropolitan areas, Sanders said. With the support of the Chamber, she aims for the group to have a presence in conversations about the city’s small business landscape and ultimately reflect the landscape of the city.
“It’s an acknowledgment of how Owensboro is changing, and that change is kind of slow. There’s energy on social media with all these small businesses popping up and promoting their stuff and collaborating, but you’re still not seeing a large representation of minority-owned businesses at the table, and that hurts us and that it’s not a true reflection of Owensboro,” Sanders said.
According to Sanders, all minority-owned businesses will be able to join — racial, gender and sexual orientation minorities. Some of the programming will focus on celebrating more businesses, providing resources for entrepreneurs, and advocating for businesses in local and state government.
With several women-owned businesses in town, Sanders said that in some cases, there has been a lag in getting women at the same conversations and resources as their male counterparts. They aim to bridge that gap through this group.
“There’s still some lag in regards to female leadership and the female voice, and this is supposed to be a means to support and put women also right where they need to be: upfront and next to everyone else,” Sanders said.
She said the organization would be beneficial not only for the current business economy but also for generations to come. For herself, having a network of individuals who came before her in the small business landscape and would’ve drastically helped her in the early stages of opening the Party Space Place in 2020.
She recalled wondering where to network, how to navigate, and how to make attachments to people in town when she isn’t a native of Owensboro.
“It would have been amazing to have some great local examples to sit across the table from and get some mentorship, I had a lot of great mentors from different backgrounds help me: Suzanne Cecil, Maria Kelly, Olga McKissic, several women that helped me and more could’ve if this organization was around then,” Sanders said.
And Brake agrees.
Brake said the program, while simple, will allow the next generation exposure to people who have been in their shoes to see a chance at entrepreneurship.
“We look forward to a day soon where children can look around Owensboro and see people who look like them in any role imaginable,” Brake said.
Throughout their inaugural year, Sanders said the community can expect to see the group being vocal about growing members, supporting and building new businesses, participating in local and state politics and, most importantly, teaching the next generation about the possibilities in entrepreneurship.
“We’re going to be doing a lot of things within our high schools and middle schools to start building up young leadership and letting them know the group is here, and even if they go away to go to college, they can bring their talent and have a reason to come home. That’s our whole driving purpose with this,” Sanders said.
By Josh Kelly The Owensboro Times