OpenWorks CEO Will Holman said people who use his Greenmount West nonprofit to get their businesses off the ground often struggle with knowing where to start, what resources are available and deciding where to launch their budding businesses.
“We have people all the time asking us questions … ‘Where is so-and-so? What agency do I go to for this?’” Holman said Wednesday. “Access to information is unequally distributed.”
That’s why Holman was happy to learn that a new state website could help would-be entrepreneurs looking for opportunities in underserved areas with those beginning questions. so his nonprofit can help with the more challenging aspects of starting a business.
The Maryland Community Business Compass website, unveiled Wednesday by Gov. Wes Moore (D), aims to help smaller and local businesses with market and population data, while also connecting them to various state grants that could assist in start-up costs.
“These billion-dollar corporations … they have all these analytics and all this data that helps to give them information as to what they should do,” Moore said. “For too many of our small’business owners, especially the ones who are in the highest-need communities and the most-neglected communities — they just have to guess. They have to figure it out.”
The dashboard currently has a focus on recruiting child care services and fresh food retailers to underserved areas, though other businesses could utilize the information provided as well.
“No more guesswork, no more figuring it out,” Moore said. “Let’s make sure we level the playing field for all of us to be successful.”
In addition, the Moore administration announced $10 million in grants for new child care facilities and fresh food retailers to start up in communities that need them.
Of that funding, $8 million comes from the Child Care Capital Support Revolving Loan fund to boost those services in underserved areas, according to Commerce Secretary Harry Coker Jr.
“Child care gives working families more freedom, more flexibility and more opportunities.” Coker said. “Priority is given to providers in underserved or rural communities, providers in low-income, high-poverty areas and to providers that serve young children and children with special needs. That’s where these funds have the most impact.”
Meanwhile, $2 million of the announced funding Wednesday will be available for local grocers to bring fresh food into their communities as part of the newly launched NourishedMD Grant program.
“Through this program, we’re supporting the development, the stabilization and the expansion of small businesses that provide fresh food in areas where residents have limited or no access to nutritious food options,” Maryland Housing Secretary Jake Day said. “These businesses included grocery or corner stores, farm stands, food co-ops, farmers markets and even eligible delivery retailers.”
Holman said that those grant funds, as well as resources provided by the new data dashboard, will help OpenWorks get more local businesses up and running.
“Success is not a straight line,” he said during the event. “Success is definitely not a straight line if you’re a woman. If you’re Black. If you’re queer or if you’re broke. We are here to provide the resources to the least among us. To build the businesses that no one can ever take away from them.”
