Tag: small business

Because the Democrats joined the Republicans in allowing the sequestration budget cuts to continue in the latest political deal known as a “continuing resolution” that ended the government shutdown on Oct. 16, it appears to be a very grim situation for Section 8 voucher holders in cities all across the nation. Housing officials claim that 140,000 voucher holders are at risk of losing their vouchers because of the sequestration budget cuts.

I was dumb enough to quit a lifetime-guaranteed job with the government to start my own business. I was dumb enough to think, as an African American woman, I could compete with huge corporations for government contracts. Turns out I was smart enough after all. Smart enough to get contracts and smart enough to find people who knew what I did not know.

Unemployment in the African-American community is double and in some places triple the national average. You know it doesn’t have to be that way.

"We should own and operate and control the economy of our community," said Malcolm X. To make that happen, businesses in the hood should grab the new ARC loans: no-interest loans with no payments due for a year, offered beginning June 15 by the U.S. Small Business Administration, revitalized by President Obama. Merchants and residents who hire and trade with each other build peace and prosperity in the hood.