Minority-owned businesses can struggle to start and grow in northeast Wisconsin. These groups are trying to change that.

GREEN BAY - Avery Rhenwrick expected to be another person on the safe, well-trod path from high school to college and, then, a job in corporate America.

He applied for jobs after he graduated from St. Norbert College in December 2019, but the coronavirus pandemic’s arrival in March 2020 would send him down a more challenging, yet more rewarding, path than what he expected.

“Everybody will think of 2020 as being this dark, depressing year, but for me it was a year where I was able to do that soul-searching, figure out what I wanted to do and then build this business,” Rhenwrick said.

He launched his business, an online apparel shop called 4th N Long, that summer with a run of 12 t-shirts that he sold to family and friends. His product line has grown to includes shirts, hoodies, hats, sweatpants and, as summer approaches, shorts.

He found resources and help where he could — a college business class, social media, and his personal network — to overcome growing pains, find training, improve his product quality and expand 4th N Long's reach.

Rhenwrick's barber, Hansel Canady, hooked him up with a t-shirt supplier while his banker and 4th N Long customer, Lamarr Banks, suggested he enroll in The Blueprint Green Bay, a new business training program launched last fall for entrepreneurs of color, women and veterans at The Urban Hub coworking space in downtown Green Bay. Banks became Urban Hub's director in May 2021 when it relaunched after closing early in the pandemic.

“If you want to start a business, start with the resources around you, believe in what you want,” Rhenwrick said. “You don’t have to have a lot of money. Start a page on Instagram. Start with the people around you, helping the people around you. Build those connections and expand from there.”

Rhenwrick’s combination of hard work and working connections has him poised to take the next step in his business.

A connection to former Packers special teams coach Maurice Drayton has 4th N Long poised to sponsor football camps in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Orlando, Florida, this summer. Rhenwrick contacted NFL running back Dexter Williams and the two collaborated on a hoodie.

He has shipped orders to Italy and Spain and to military bases in Germany and Japan.

“I always wanted to make an impact across the globe, and to be able to see somebody somewhere else in a different culture wearing your shirt was cool,” Rhenwrick said.

Growing focus on minority-owned businesses as demographics change

The support that Rhenwhick found as he grew his business is a tribute to both his vision  and a growing support network for minority-owned businesses in northeast Wisconsin.

Historically, outreach and support for entrepreneurs of color focused on Milwaukee, Madison, Racine and Kenosha, areas with larger Black and Hispanic populations.

The Greater Green Bay Chamber took a step toward filling that need in Green Bay when its 2017 economic strategic plan highlighted the need to better support entrepreneurs of color. Laurie Radke, the Chamber's CEO, said the region has “moved in the right direction” since then.

That change is happening at a time when Black, Asian, Hispanic and Indigenous populations are growing in the Green Bay, Appleton and Oshkosh areas. The 2020 U.S. census reported the minority population in Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago counties increased 60% since 2010, while the white population grew just 3 percent.

People of color now make up 36% of Green Bay residents, 21% of the population in Appleton and 19% of Oshkosh's population.

The region's longstanding economic development agencies and newer professional organizations have started to ramp up targeted programming in recent years to support a growing number of entrepreneurs of color and better connect them with bankers, accountants, marketers, advisers and mentors, Radke said.

“It comes back to listening, assessing and then being willing to change,” Radke said. “As we build out this area of focus, I hope it exponentially continues to grow."

Opportunity, networking gaps persist

Over the last decade, minority business owners accounted for more than half of the 2 million businesses started in the United States and created 4.7 million jobs, according to the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship.

However, Black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian often struggle to access to capital and other business development assistance and opportunities.

The coronavirus pandemic underscored the stark disparities as minority-owned businesses struggled to access federal Paycheck Protection Program loans meant to help small businesses survive the pandemic. The Center for Responsible Lending found many small businesses, and particularly businesses owned by people of color lacked a relationship with a banker, which made it difficult for them to qualify for assistance.

Banks said improving access to resources and helping to answer entrepreneurs' questions, was part of what led him to join Urban Hub in May 2021. He said Urban Hub has engaged established businesses like GreenLeaf Bank as partners who hold office hours weekly to answer members' questions.

"Their rep will have office hours specifically here to help build a banking relationship, to learn about loan programs, to learn about grant programs," Banks said.

A research paper published in 2020 by Chicago Federal Reserve found that a lack of access to capital means a higher percentage of minority-owned entrepreneurs rely on their savings to start a business than do white business owners.

Such challenges play a role in disproportionate business ownership in Wisconsin, as highlighted by data from the U.S. Small Business Administration and 2020 Census.

Among Wisconsin's 440,000 small businesses:

• Black people are 6.7% of the population yet own 3.7% Wisconsin small businesses

• Hispanic people are 7.1% of the population, but only own 2.6% of small businesses

• Asian people are 3% of the population but own 2.6% of businesses, and

• Indigenous people are 1.2% of the population but own 0.3% of businesses.

In contrast, white people account for 87% of the population but own 90.7% of businesses.

Minority business ownership in Wisconsin also lags national rates. Black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian people own 18.7% of small businesses nationally, but 9.6% here, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration's 2021 Wisconsin Small Business Profile.

Minority-owned businesses also tend to be smaller. The owner is the sole employee in 85.2% of Hispanic-owned businesses and 93.4% of Black-owned Wisconsin businesses; the figure drops to 77.6% for white-owned businesses, according the SBA state profile.

Another organization that wants to improve access to business development resources for entrepreneurs of color is the ColorBold Business Association. Based in Green Bay the association aims to be a resource to businesses in the 18-county New North region, said Kimyatta Ratliff, the association’s president and CEO.

“We aim to collaborate and work with everyone, but what we have been noticing and hearing from the people we service is these agencies rarely reach people of color adequately,” Ratliff said.

ColorBold traces its roots to Oshkosh, where Tracey Robertson founded Fit Oshkosh in 2017 to improve racial literacy in the community. Fit Oshkosh helped establish the Regional People of Color Business Association, now renamed ColorBold.

ColorBold launched in 2021 with help from UW-Extension in Madison to sharpen its focus and establish a leadership team.

That same year, the Latino Professionals Association of Northeast Wisconsin (LPA), and NEW Asian Pacific Islander and Desi American Professionals (APIDA) also launched in the Green Bay area.

ColorBold, LPA and APIDA have started to build connections already.

ColorBold has started a monthly spotlight for business owners of color to increase their visibility, and is developing a regional resource guide. And all three groups teamed up with the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp.'s northeast office, the Greater Green Bay Chamber and the New North to host a May 12 mixer at VIP Daiquiri Lounge. ColorBold also will host a pop-up event June 26 at the KI Convention Center that offers  entrepreneurs of color the chance to sell products and network.

"If you are a business owner, aspiring or a crafter, this is a good opportunity to connect with other business owners," Ratliff said during the event.

New North CEO Barb LaMue acknowledged the region needs to do better to make sure every one of the 18-county region's 1.2 million residents are able to prosper, develop careers and build businesses. It could be through improving access to bid on government contracts or events like the mixer, which she noted brought together "powerful people, powered by purpose."

'Nobody Teaches You How to Start a Business'

Roger Perez, his brother, Sergio, and their dad, Roger "Rogelio" Perez, all knew their way around a kitchen after a decade or more of working at Mackinaw's in Green Bay,  when they decided to open Rocky'z Cafe, 2475 University Ave., in January 2020.

Roger Perez said he could have used help or advice before the restaurant opened with permits, licenses, registrations and the business management services ownership involves.

"I didn't know where to turn. I had to go way outside of my comfort zone to find out," he said.

Since then, he said, Green Bay and Brown County agencies have been helpful about answering his questions. Now, he said, Rocky'z has made it through the pandemic, is doing good weekend business and the chilaquiles are becoming a big hit with the breakfast crowd.

"Don't be scared to go out and do it," Roger Perez said. "People will be there to help."

Carmen Cabral built Hair Colors by Carmen in Green Bay the hard way - on her own and without outside resources. She went to beauty school in 2014 and learned the basic skills she needed to work in salons, but she realized she needed to be in business for herself. She set out to learn what she needed to know while saving money and starting a family.

"That was the hard part, because nobody teaches you how to start a business. I was taught how to cut hair, do it, dye it; how to do make up and pedicure and manicure, but nothing about starting your own business," Cabral said.

Her talent and ability helped make up for the lack of marketing know-how: She's built a clientele of about 300 customers with "a good strategy" that she says has her poised to grow, now that she's established herself.

“I feel great," she said. "Freedom feels good. I’m happy with all the things I learned that I didn’t know when I was just an employee.”

Common challenges, needs

Banks is proud that the Urban Hub and other Greater Green Bay Chamber programs are adapting resources to better reach entrepreneurs of color and to help them build out their own support networks.

For example, The Blueprint's second group of entrepreneurs started in February with a Sunday meeting, in recognition that business owners have family and work obligations that can leave little time on weekdays. Five businesses completed the program May 25 with a pitch night.

"It’s really tailoring your programming and resources to where they’re at," Banks said.

However, language barriers can pose additional challenges for Hmong and Hispanic business owners and other business owners who don’t speak English as their first language as they try to find business-support resources.

Plus, there's also an element of distrust of banks and other institutions that needs to be overcome, said Maysee Herr, CEO of the Hmong Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin.

“Some of the people I’ve had conversations with say they are not taken seriously when they go to a bank or credit union asking for a loan,” said Herr.

The Hmong Chamber, with offices in Milwaukee and Wausau, focuses primarily on lending and assisting businesses in disadvantaged communities. It provides workshops for entrepreneurs about accessing government funding, marketing, planning and connecting with investors and banks.

“We go beyond serving the Hmong community or Asian, they are our principal focus point, but our portfolio is quite diverse,” Herr said.

Herr said the organization is looking to open a new office in the Fox Valley that will help it pay closer attention to businesses in the Appleton and Green Bay areas.

Ratliff, the CEO of ColorBold, said sustained support for minority owned businesses improvement begins with the broader business community purposefully engaging Black, Hispanic, Asian and minority business owners.

"When cities have these meetings, be open to hearing diverse perspectives. Don't just invite us; actively take steps to bring more people to these tables to make decisions so our region can be inclusive and helpful to everyone," Ratliff said.

Rhenwrick thinks a lot about the impact he can make at 4th N Long.

He drew on his experiences as a Black man who grew up in Green Bay to begin donating a portion of the company's profits to Every Kid Sports, which works with low-income families to help them afford their childterns' participation in sports.

“Being from a single-mother household myself, I wasn’t able to play sports, really until middle and high school when the costs became quite a bit cheaper because … you don’t have to provide all the equipment yourself," Rhenwrick said.

He wants to go from donating to a nonprofit to establishing his own foundation to help kids in low-income families play sports. He one day hopes to help a young entrepreneur fighting to build a business much like Banks and Canady helped him.

"It's important to come together," Rhenwrick said. "We can accomplish more together than we can apart. Build connections. Find ways you can help each other. Anything can be done."

Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier.  

Ariel Perez is a business reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach him at APerez1@gannett.com or view his Twitter profile at @Ariel_Perez85.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay's minority-owned businesses build networks for support