Mom-and-pop startups will have a new business resource in South Carolina, similar to the network that Georgia has operated in some form for more than 10 years.
The S.C. Commission on Minority Affairs is setting up the S.C. Microenterprise Network, the smaller state’s version of the Georgia Micro Enterprise Network.
Whether an entrepreneur hopes to sell Gullah artwork or Native American pieces, they have similar steps and hurdles, said Rogie Nelson, Small and Minority Business coordinator for the commission. They might not have commercial sources of credit because they lack business experience or training. Similarly, a micro entrepreneur my have not have business records necessary to show their potential to pay back a loan.
“Instead of everyone working in their own individual silos,” said Nelson. “Every now and then we need to come together.”
“We think we can help make this organization strong and get it off the ground and get it running... to better serve the disenfranchised, people that can’t go to banks to get traditional loans,” said Nelson.
It’s taking shape alongside the Microenterprise Development Act, which became law this year after Rep. Kenneth Hodges, D-Green Pond, introduced it as H. 3135. The law created a program under the Department of Commerce to facilitate grants and loans. The law specifically focuses on places with chronic economic distress and low-income urban and rural areas.
The new law also targets the self-employed and those with home businesses who want to draw an income from their expertise as fishermen who make their own nets, artists, food vendors, childcare providers, landscapers or others.
“It will definitely impact all areas of the state, but specifically impact the Gullah community as well,” said Hodges, who represents part of Beaufort County and is himself Gullah. “It’s really almost tailor-made for the Gullah community, because they have a history of begin self sufficient and entrepreneurial, but don’t always have the financial and technical assistance.”
He said the S.C. Microenterprise Network is in its embryonic phase, while the program his legislation created could be offering services through the commerce agency and the S.C. Association for Community Economic Development before the year’s end.
Kate Pratt, the association’s vice president of operations, said entrepreneurs have already applied for grants from $200,000 available. Award notices are scheduled for early December, according to the commerce department. If there is a recurring amount within the commerce agency’s budget, the grants will be available annually, Pratt said.
The grant program is projected to make at least 15 loans to entrepreneurs across South Carolina, generating a collective economic impact of $800,000.
“The goal of the legislation is to raise, of course, awareness for micro-entrepreneurs and their needs but also to raise the capacity of the organizations serving them,” said Pratt.