Amid this Black History Month, Goldman Sachs recently published its 10,000 Small Businesses Voices survey that showed Black-owned small businesses have more optimism than most heading into 2023, and expect to create more jobs than their peers.

Highlighting how systemic barriers still persist amid a challenging economic environment, the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices survey, conducted by Babson College and David Binder Research from Jan. 23-26, 2023, is based on a survey of 1,838 participants, including 325 Black small business owners from 48 U.S. states.

Jessica Johnson-Cope, President of Johnson Security Bureau in The Bronx, NY and Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices National Leadership Council Chair, noted:

This Black History Month, we ought to celebrate the increasing success of Black-owned small businesses in this country.

Key Findings 

Here are some of the numbers that reveal the optimistic mood among Black small business owners:

• 81% of Black small business owners are optimistic about the financial trajectory of their business in 2023, an increase of 13 percentage points above the optimism level (68%) for the small business community as a whole.
• 78% of Black-owned small business owners expect their businesses to grow profits by 2023, 18 points higher than the national average (60%).
• 67% of Black small business owners expect their business to create new jobs by 2023, 16 percentage points above the national average (51%).

The shared data also reveals some of the difficulties they face:

• 37% of Black small business owners have had difficulty accessing new capital and financing, 14 percentage points higher than their peers.
• 45% of Black small business owners drew on their personal savings in the last three months to keep their business afloat (versus 33% overall).

81% of Black #smallbiz owners are “optimistic about the financial trajectory of their business in 2023.” Read more from our #10KSmallBiz survey results below. #BlackHistoryMonth https://t.co/TzCrkeVIEk

— 10,000 Small Businesses (@GS10KSmallBiz) February 7, 2023

“However, Black business owners and entrepreneurs continue to face systemic barriers relative to their peers. Our leaders in Washington must commit to removing these obstacles and allow Black businesses like mine to thrive,” added Johnson-Cope.

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices continues to call on Congress to reauthorize the Small Business Administration for the first time in 23 years. The modernization would improve access to capital and financing options for Black-owned small businesses, while simplifying the certification process for minority-owned business programs.