Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) small business owners face a range of challenging barriers to growth, according to the just released results of extensive focus group research conducted by the Vermont Professionals of Color Network (VT PoC).
The focus groups were part of a larger project coordinated by the Vermont Small Business Development Center, as the hub of a Community Navigator Pilot Program grant, funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration, examining the challenges facing underrepresented small business owners in the state.
While the hurdles are real for Vermont’s BIPOC’s businesses, VT PoC’s co-executive directors, Weiwei Wang and Tino Rutanhira, say the rapid growth of their organization shows that Vermont’s population of BIPOC businesses is robust.
Their attraction to the Vermont lifestyle, a theme that emerged in the focus groups, and growing sense of community, spurred in part by VT PoC, are strong positives that could help businesses overcome their challenges, they said.
