CASH MOB FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES - The Coronavirus pandemic has been hard for small businesses everywhere but recent data released by the Federal Reserve Bank in New York reveals that the number of active minority-owned businesses fell by 22% for the February to April 2020 period – that’s the largest drop on record. The data shows minority-owned businesses have been disproportionately hit by closures due to the Coronavirus Pandemic even in spite of Federal Coronavirus relief programs like the Paycheck Protection Program. Billy Anderson is the new Executive Director for the Shreveport-Bossier African American Chamber of Commerce.
"A lot of black-owned businesses don't necessarily have a payroll expense," Anderson explained. "And with the PPP loan program that the federal government introduced you have to have a employee or payroll expenditure in order to qualify for those funds. So many black-owned businesses did not qualify and didn't get the money."
Anderson says his organization is doing what it can to help small-business owners during the pandemic. One program is to get “Cash Mobs” to shop local minority-owned businesses.
"The term 'cash mob' actually came from the whole 'flash mob craze' when people would pick a predetermined time and date to actually do a flash mob dance," Anderson said. "So business leaders wanted to use the same idea to promote businesses so they picked a predetermined date and time to start doing cash mobs."
The idea is for people to show up at a store or restaurant on a given day and spend money on products or get take-out food and generate some much-needed cash flow. The entire community is invited to participate in the “Cash Mobs” over the next few weeks. The list of businesses and dates cab be found on the website: sbaacc.org
