minority enterprise There were more ribbon-cuttings among minorities in the U.S. in 1970. SBA's financial and management assistance programs helped minorities increase their share of new business enterprises. NEWSSTAND CREAM A MFG. CO. The normal disadvantages of small business as a whole are merely emphasized when the capital and managerial gaps, lack of business heritage, and language barriers confronting minority and other disadvantaged persons are considered. Despite this, the past 2 years showed an encouraging rise in business ownership by minorities, increasing to 4.5 percent of all business at the end of 1970 versus 3.7 percent in 1968. This represents a gain of some 50,000 minorityowned firms to a total of about 250,000. During the same interval, income and assets of minority businesses rose to about 2.2 from 1.9 percent. In comparison, however, minorities represent 17 percent of the U.S. population. It would require some 600,000 new enterprises, worth $40 billion, to bring the minority sector of the business population to the level of their share of total population and to change the distribution, location, and size of their businesses to conform to the characteristics of the total business community. a new yearly high of 245 loans for $7.98 million were approved for minority businessmen starting their own franchise outlets, most of them in the fast food business. The 1969 record was 199 loans for $6.69 million. Field Representatives The agency increased its contact with minority groups on their home ground. The number of SBA Minority Enterprise Field Representatives (MER's) expanded to more than 100 working in 43 cities and 17 "outreach" offices set up for special purposes. These representatives carry on continuous community and personal contact to explain SBA's programs and services. They assist in packaging business proposals and pleading the cause of the minority businessman among Government agencies, in the private sector, and within SBA itself. During 1970, MER's were also called upon to help in disaster areas where language and cultural differences existed. After the major hurricane at Corpus Christi, Tex., a heavy minority area, such representatives manned seven emergency offices, conducted more than 30,000 interviews and helped fill out 6,000 loan applications for those persons who had language difficulties. a new minority start Renmuth, Inc. is representative of how new minority small businesses begin. Renmuth is the 1970 partnership of Robert Renfroe and Mohammed Muthleb, two Black Americans, who decided to establish a metal stampings plant in the heart of the Detroit inner city area. They could see that members of minority groups there, most of them without more than a basic education, found it difficult to secure employment, even in un skilled positions. Renfroe and Muthleb had been outstanding supervisors at the Ford Motor Co., and Ford agreed to help the budding enterprise in cooperation with the National Bank of Detroit, the Inner City Business Improvement Forum (a local development firm), and the SBA. The company agreed to buy a substantial portion of Renmuth's product for the first years, provide steel inventories, guarantee the new plant lease, loan the major machinery required, and provide managerial and technical assistance. The bank loaned $81,000 to the Local Development firm for Renmuth to buy machinery, and another $238,000 to Renmuth for operating capital. The SBA loaned $162,000 to the local development firm for other machinery and equipment for Renmuth, and SBA guaranteed 90 percent of the bank's loan. Renmuth will be completing its first year of operation in 1971, doing business at the rate of $1.4 million annually and having created 45 new jobs in the inner city. |