Access to capital is a critical piece in a small business' growth cycle but is often out of reach for many diverse entrepreneurs. LISC and ICIC created a five-chapter video curriculum aimed at helping small business support professionals and business owners they serve to better understand and navigate their lending landscape. Hear from LISC's Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen and ICIC's Anna Marie Cruz and Howard Wia as they highlight the results of this collaboration and how you can get involved.
Small businesses rely on financing to launch, expand in periods of opportunity, and persevere during moments of crisis. It’s not surprising that access to capital is one of the most frequent issues raised by entrepreneurs across LISC’s national small business support network and ICIC’s programs to support small businesses in under-resourced communities. Capital access is especially challenging for business owners of color; in particular, Black entrepreneurs have more difficulty than their white counterparts in raising and accessing capital. There is a lack of high-quality, accessible training that business support networks can easily use to assist diverse small business owners in navigating the finance landscape.
United by our commitment to elevating diverse entrepreneurs as a means of attaining economic equity, LISC and ICIC partnered to fill this gap. We’re excited to announce the release of Bridging the Capital Access Gap, a free, publicly accessible curriculum and video series to help business support organizations navigate the capital landscape with and for their clients. We’re proud to share this vital resource with LISC’s Business Development Organization (BDO) Network and other technical assistance providers across the nation, connecting historically marginalized business owners to the capital they need to succeed. We encourage you to register to attend our Live Watch Parties as well as interactive two Office Hours with trainer Susan Brown.
To inform the creation of this curriculum and video series, we conducted in-depth research, held local and national focus groups with key stakeholders, and partnered with a capital access specialist. With support from LISC, ICIC’s report on the small business financing industry provides a current overview of the financing options available to small businesses. It documents the ways in which racial and gender inequality in entrepreneurship and access to capital drives a widening divide in asset ownership and wealth in low-income communities and communities of color. Achieving a more equitable future for entrepreneurs will require repairing systems of exclusion in capital access and creating more accessible information about navigating the various forms of financing that are suitable for each small business.
Bridging the Capital Access Gap is a five-chapter, 16-part video series exploring the small business lending landscape, the basics of loan underwriting and credit management, strategies effective for seeking capital and how to cultivate long-term relationships with lenders. The video series is designed to build the capacity of business support organizations and their teams across a range of experience levels, including those who are unfamiliar with or new to the financing landscape as well as those who have worked in conventional lending.
While the video series is available online for professionals to watch at their own pace, we will be hosting online watch parties through January 2023 for partners across LISC’s BDO Network and ICIC’s ecosystem to watch, ask questions and learn together. The virtual office hours will be hosted by capital access specialist and the series’ instructor, capital access specialist, Susan Brown.
Bridging the Capital Access Gap
This five-part video series takes an in-depth look at the small business financing industry and ways that business owners can use this knowledge to gain access to additional avenues of capital.
Watch Parties
Join LISC and ICIC for our Bridging the Capital Access Gap watch party hosted by capital access specialist and the series’ instructor, Susan Brown.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen, Senior Program Officer, LISC
Armando is an organizer, facilitator, and capacity builder, energized by empowering communitiesacross LISC markets and throughout the Business Development Organization Network. Pairing years of economic development advocacy with a commitment to elevating marginalized communities, he is passionate about coalition building,economic justice, and creating robust policy foundations for inclusiveeconomic development.
Anna Marie Cruz, Director of Ecosystem Engagement, ICIC
Anna Marie is a director at ICIC and is responsible for cultivating relationships with entrepreneurship ecosystem leaders, liaising with funding partners, and recruiting small business owners for Inner City Capital Connections, a 40-hour “mini-MBA” for entrepreneurs in under-resourced communities. Anna Marie has extensive experience working in the small business capital landscape, previously serving as an SBA Micro and Community Advantage Loan Officer at CDC Small Business Finance and as a business counselor at a Los Angeles Women’s Business Center (WBC) serving AAPI and immigrant clients.
Howard Wial, Director of Research, ICIC
Howard is the Senior Vice President and Director of Research at ICIC. A specialist in urban and regional economic development, he is responsible for designing and overseeing a research agenda to promote the revitalization of economically depressed communities.Howard has extensive experience as an economist and economic policy advisor. He has been a fellow of the Brookings Institution, executive director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an advisor in the office of the Governor of Pennsylvania.