Ensuring L.A.’s African American Entrepreneurs Can Thrive

by Maria S. Salinas

As a convener of thought leaders in the Los Angeles community, we are pleased to welcome the Chamber's partner and friend, Gene Hale, Chair of the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce and President of G&C Corporation, as the guest author of this week’s Business Perspective.

As we emerge from the pandemic, the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce (GLAAACC) looks to double down on the work we started during the pandemic – providing our region’s African American entrepreneurs with the resources to retool and build back better. 

Our focus continues to be technical assistance, advocacy, and creating winning networking environments. GLAAACC is currently developing new workshops centered around creating better banking relationships to access capital, doing business with California’s utilities as they upgrade and replace their infrastructure, and fine-tuning basic business fundamentals for entrepreneurs and our communities. We advocate for procurement policies, practices, and language that breaks down the obstacles for small minority businesses. We advocate for certification processes to be streamlined and big contracts to be unbundled so that a small business can become a big business. We also provide more focus on supplier diversity programs, and increased support for bonding and contract financing.

Public and private sector investment is critical to address the disparities and close the gap of African American business revenue growth and opportunity. 

Learn more about our partners at the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce, here.