Business Resilience Activator

Small businesses are often touted as the backbone of our economy, the fastest growing employer type and a solution to gender and wealth gaps. What is not equally socialized is the extremely high failure rate for small businesses: 50% of businesses fail within the first 5 years. For businesses owned by women and people of color, the failure rate is estimated to be above 60% within 5 years. This failure rate is especially detrimental to underrepresented communities: Lack of access to capital leads underrepresented individuals tend to start businesses later and invest more personal resources in to the business. And while there are many initiatives to support entrepreneurs in starting businesses, business failure is often ignored. To properly address the problem of small business failures, we need to equip business owners with tools to assess, measure and prevent failure risks.

One of the biggest weaknesses that even the strongest small and middle-market businesses have is underestimating or completely lacking understanding of risks that can impede the growth of their business of lead to business failure. In the current environment business owners are faced with many prospective challenges including, but not limited to, weather or climate related disasters, political instability and economic uncertainty, rapidly changing laws and a tenuous regulatory environment in the fintech industry. We see a gap in business resiliency related curriculum and service offerings in the market of advisors and business support providers, leaving small businesses vulnerable to a variety of challenges.

Introduction

We are seeking a $20,000 grant to support underserved communities by enhancing the capacity of entrepreneurs through a business resilience activator program focused on risk mitigation and business resilience. This initiative will leverage our existing network of entrepreneurs and business support providers and provide them with targeted resources to help navigate business risks effectively.

Project Overview

Our proposed initiative will convene a group of entrepreneurs to participate in our program, a series designed to strengthen their ability to assess and mitigate business risks.

The three sessions will cover:

1. Socializing Failure – Creating a safe space for entrepreneurs to discuss failures and learn from them.

2. Identifying Risk Categories – Understanding various business risks and how they impact operations.

3. Developing a Default Risk Score – Implementing a dynamic risk assessment tool that entrepreneurs can update periodically to track and manage risk exposure.

Additionally, we will provide practical strategies and tactics for mitigating risks, enabling participants to apply these strategies to their businesses immediately.

Goals and Objectives

The overarching goal of this initiative is to empower underserved entrepreneurs with tools and strategies to proactively manage business risks, thereby fostering sustainability and growth. Our specific objectives include:

• Enhancing entrepreneurs’ understanding of risk and resilience.

• Providing a framework for continuously assessing business risks.

• Encouraging peer learning and networking among entrepreneurs.

Geographic Focus: Primarily the Midwest, but will also market to our network and partners on the East Coast and Southeastern U.S.

Measurable Outcomes

To assess the impact of this initiative over the three-month grant period, we will track the following metrics:

1. Entrepreneur Participation – Number of business owners engaged in the program (headcount).

2. Understanding of Risk – Percentage of participants who report an improved understanding of business risk (survey-based).

3. Utilization of Default Risk Score – Number of entrepreneurs who actively update and apply their risk score in business decisions (survey-based).

4. Business Support Ecosystem – Number of business support organizations exploring ways to incorporate risk discussions in their technical assistance.