New York City’s Small Business Services is celebrating Black-owned businesses for National Black Business Month. 

Brooklyn entrepreneur Shawanda Clarence was able to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a salon, which she says she has known she wanted to do since she was 7 years old. 

She opened the doors to Sew Brooklyn Hair Extension Lounge in Bed-Stuy in 2015, and while city data shows that only 3.5% of businesses in New York are Black-owned, the city’s Small Business Services are aiming to make it easier for these businesses to grow. 

A program called Black Entrepreneurs New York City started in 2019 to provide services and resources specifically for Black business owners. 

Small Business Services says that since Black and other minority entrepreneurs were not equally provided resources to start businesses, the program was created to help provide mentorship, education, counseling and resources for Black people to start to grow their businesses. 

For Clarence, Small Business Services was able to help her stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now her business is booming.  

Anyone interested in taking a closer look at the Black Entrepreneurship NYC initiative can click here.