Business Retention & Expansion
The BBAO helps to retain Black businesses in Oregon, foster growth, increase their revenues, and enhance their competitiveness in the broader marketplace.
Business Visits
The BBAO visits Black businesses annually to conduct business retention and expansion surveys as an economic development strategy to proactively connect with existing businesses, establish relationships, and collect data.
• The BBAO learns about the perception Black businesses have about the business climate and the advantages and disadvantages of operating a business in Oregon.
• The BBAO learns about the specific needs of Black businesses, especially those that are at risk of closing or relocating out of the state.
• The BBAO responds to the needs of Black businesses with a variety of services provided through federal, state, and local economic development programs.
• The BBAO Addresses the issues that detract from Black businesses competitiveness and work with leaders to improve the business climate for Black businesses.
Direct Technical Assistance
The BBAO’s team of experts work directly with Black businesses to help them solve problems, overcome challenges, gain more exposure, and expand their operations.
• Operations Management – The BBAO helps improve the overall operation and productivity of businesses.
• Marketing and Sales – The BBAO helps ensure visible, in-demand products or services that are competitively priced and promoted to existing and potential customers.
• Financial Control Systems – The BBAO helps improve short and long-term business performance by developing policies and procedures to manage financial resources and operate efficiently.
• Technology Deployment – The BBAO helps adopt new technologies to be more efficient, productive, and competitive
• Strategic Planning – The BBAO helps lay out a strategy for sustainability and growth and identifying specific actions to reach business goals.
Business Financing
The BBAO helps Black businesses build relationships with traditional and non-traditional financial institutions to get access to the capital they need to operate, grow, and expand.
• Revolving Loans – The BBAO helps with finding gap financing for growing businesses such as: working capital, real estate acquisitions, new construction, renovation, landscape, and equipment.
• Micro Loans – The BBAO helps with finding financing for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and home-based businesses.
• Venture Capital – The BBAO helps to identify private companies that make equity investments into start-up or promising new businesses.
• Angel Investors – The BBAO helps to identify High-net-worth individuals who fund startups at the early stages with their own money.
• Local, State and Federal Programs – The BBAO helps to identify local grants, loans, and tax incentives.
Entrepreneurial Development
• Creating business ideas – The BBAO helps entrepreneurs identify niche opportunities in various industry sectors to start a business and connects them with financial institutions and investors that provide start-up capital.
• Business acquisition – The BBAO helps entrepreneurs identify existing businesses to purchase and connects them to financial institutions that provide acquisition capital.
• Franchises – The BBAO helps entrepreneurs discover franchise concepts and opportunities that are the right fit for them to purchase.The BBAO will also connect entrepreneurs with attorneys who provide discounts for legal assistance with franchise documents and connect them to financial institutions that provide acquisition capital.
Workforce Development
• Corporate employment – The BBAO helps corporations in Oregon find qualified Black employees and assist with recruiting them for job opportunities.
• Customized job training – The BBAO collaborates with workforce development partners to create customized job training programs to provide Black residents with the skills they need to get employment with companies across the state of Oregon.
• Youth Internships – The BBAO works with businesses to provide paid internships for Black youth to earn wages while in school and exposes them to career pathways that will lead success.
Black Business Recruiting
The BBAO recruits Black businesses from around the country to relocate or set up operations in the state of Oregon.
• Marketing – The BBAO targets national and international black businesses and entrepreneurs to entice them to invest, start-up or expand their businesses in Oregon.
• Demographics – The BBAO provides accurate, up-to-date, and credible demographic information to potential Black prospects interested in investing, relocating, or expanding their operations in Oregon.
• Industry visits – The BBAO’s Black Business Recruiting Committee serves as the main point of contact and host for Black prospects who visit and are considering Oregon as a place to do business, and Black college graduates who are being recruited to the state for job opportunities.
• Site selection – The BBAO helps Black prospects identify commercial, industrial, and retail space needed to conduct business in Oregon.
• Incentives – The BBAO works with the state, county, and municipal governments to develop tax incentive packages for Black prospects looking to make investments or create jobs in Oregon.
