Business

Small-business owners are increasingly confident about the future — and Black business owners are even more optimistic.

Live Like a Local Tours founder Collin Knight has been inspired and guided by his community throughout his career. His tours take people out of the typical tourist spots of downtown Boston and into the city’s Black and brown neighborhoods to expose them to food, business and people that make each neighborhood unique.

As the country moves rapidly toward our 2024 presidential election, Black Americans are experiencing the most positive economic conditions in generations. Record-low unemployment rates, record-low poverty rates, record-high income levels and new heights of wealth paint a picture of prosperity. One could easily think that this data means Black people are experiencing broad prosperity.

For the first time since the Boston Ujima Project formed, the group is becoming financially independent, a step the group’s leadership said comes at a moment of maturation for the seven-year-old group.

Small-business owners are being told to brace for a continued squeeze as banks further tighten their lending standards in the current economic environment.

Appleton Estate, the home to Appleton Estate Rum, is situated on the oldest sugar estate and distillery on the Caribbean Island of Jamaica. Founded in 1749, the lush rum estate celebrated its 275th anniversary this year.

Anyone wondering why it feels like grocery shopping requires taking out a small loan isn’t imagining things. Grocery prices, which soared due to pandemic-era inflation, are still just too blankity-blanking high, and the federal government suspects food producers might be engaged in some lucrative price-gouging.   

Black businesses need to be top of mind for financial institutions every month, not just during August, which is National Black Business Month, according to Kimberly Lyle, the CEO of Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp.

August marks National Black Business Month and Black women-owned businesses have been celebrating with a rise in presence, revenue, and development opportunities amidst ongoing infrastructure challenges, research shows.

Boston’s nightlife is about to get a major boost as Mayor Michelle Wu and the Office of Nightlife Economy announce the 42 recipients of the inaugural “Wake Up the Night Grant.”

The energy thrummed around the conference table at Cambridge College, as 13 high school students prepared for a quiz, part of a paid summer learning initiative focused on green energy jobs, run by the Boston professionals’ chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.

Community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, have been a lifeline for local businesses in underserved communities for three decades. But when the nearly 100 CDFIs in Massachusetts have trouble accessing capital themselves, the whole pipeline suffers.