Xavier McKinney got a bit more than he bargained for when he stopped in at This Is It Sports Barbershop, 2659 Penn Ave. N., Tuesday morning. The north Minneapolis resident’s haircut was interrupted several times as owner/barber Will Cobb talked with Geri Sanchez Aglipay, Region V administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Great Lakes region, and Brian McDonald, its Minnesota district director. Aglipay and McDonald visited four entrepreneurs last week in an effort to educate potential business owners on the availability of different funding and educational sources from the SBA and to celebrate Small Business Saturday, the annual “shopping holiday” started by American Express in 2010, between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when shoppers are encouraged to support small businesses in their communities. Cobb’s journey Cobb’s journey
Cobb was active in the military for six years in the 1990s, stationed at nearly every base in the U.S. during his tenure. His return to civilian life started with bouncing between a number of jobs – the local hospital to the local waste hauler. Cobb knew he wanted to start his own business but wasn’t sure how to go about it. He noticed the building while riding down the street assessing the damage after tornados ripped through north Minneapolis in 2011, returning a few months later to talk with the landlord. Now, that building is This Is It Sports Barbershop. “I didn’t have a lot of capital,” he said, acknowledging that while he’d cut a lot of his friends’ hair in high school, he didn’t realize barbering was a chance at a career. The company had a tough stretch during the pandemic, but things have improved. “Business is pretty good these days.” He received SBA funding through VisionBank, a community bank that regularly works with entrepreneurs, to help buy and restore the building. “We just wanted to highlight your business,” Aglipay told him. “It’s businesses like yours that help make a connected community in our neighborhoods. You are a small business owner who received SBA funding and you are patronized by the local neighborhood and you’re giving back by providing services they need.” The tour The tour
The remaining stops Aglipay and McDonald made highlighted the “maker to merchant ecosystem,” or how small businesses often work together. They stopped first at Wood from the Hood, 2616 Minnehaha Ave., a south Minneapolis woman- and veteran-owned business born from the idea of reclaiming discarded trees from local neighborhoods. Then at Corazon, 4646 E. Lake St., a collection of local artists, gifts, stationary, jewelry, clothing and other goods – including products provided by Wood from the Hood. And they finished at Colita, 5400 Penn Ave. S., a south Minneapolis restaurant owned by Daniel del Prado, who owns all or part of 13 different restaurants with hundreds of employees across the Twin Cities. Colita used Wood from the Hood in constructing Corazon. “We wanted to show how small businesses are supporting one another” Aglipay said. “You used their tables and the bar, as well, that’s great.” At each stop the messages were similar. Small businesses provide opportunities for families to build equity. The SBA has resources that can help them grow. And consumers should – and want to – patronize those small businesses, be they retail outlets or restaurants, heading into the holidays. Since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office, Aglipay emphasized, lending to underrepresented communities has been paramount. In October, the SBA announced it had doubled the rate of SBA-backed loans, from 3,877 in fiscal 2020 to more than 7,700 in fiscal 2023 to Latino-owned small businesses across the U.S. Those loans this year topped $3 billion in funding. Total loan dollars to Black-owned businesses amounted to $1.45 billion, also more than doubling in that timeframe, according to the SBA. That news was received warmly by del Prado, who 10 years ago was making $12 an hour working as a line cook. With the help of current and former partners, along with assistance from the SBA, he has grown into one of the Twin Cities’ most prolific restaurateurs. Del Prado has acquired many of the buildings that occupy his restaurants, a strategy for building concrete assets on his balance sheet, for building equity and for reducing uncertainty surrounding lease terms. “The main part is creating a balance sheet for growth and for getting loans,” del Prado said. “From now on, that’s all I want to do.” Aglipay complimented the strategy and congratulated del Prado on building wealth and emphasized the community’s desire to support businesses like his. “Seventy percent of people want to shop small every year,” she told del Prado, who used SBA financing to help construct Colita. “We’ve been celebrating this as one of SBA’s flagship initiatives.”
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