U.S. small business agency leader touts ‘equity’ in entrepreneurship at Miami Gardens stop
The head of the U.S. Small Business Administration visited a small aircraft repair business Monday in a Miami Gardens neighborhood to better understand the needs of local small business owners.
Isabella Guzman, the SBA administrator, was joined by Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson, who represents District 24, including parts of Northwest Miami-Dade County and south Broward County.
Guzman and Wilson toured Aero Marine Interior Inc., a Black-owned business in Norland specializing in the refurbishment of aircraft interiors and repairs of parts such as plane seating and windows. Its founders Chris and Janette Tucker showed the federal officials the company, an example of one that’s withstood the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic partly with financial help from the SBA.
Aero Marine received two Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling $400,000 from the SBA to keep employees working during the worst of the global pandemic that began in March 2020.
As a former entrepreneur that grew up in a family of business owners, Guzman, a Californian and previously director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate, identified with the need for funding to reach small business owners of diverse backgrounds.
“Nowadays more and more, the face of entrepreneurship is changing,” the SBA leader said. “It’s women and people of color starting businesses at a really high rate, yet they face historic inequities. We want to make sure they can get capital and have contract opportunities for growth and that they have the networks that can meet them where they are.”
Wilson said the Biden administration’s emphasis on “diversity” and “equity” aligned with the SBA’s work to help small business owners in her district. She appreciated Guzman’s first visit to her district to listen to the challenges facing local entrepreneurs of color and give them suggestions on how they could expand.
“For so many small businesses, people of color are working real hard and are the actual engines of this community,” Wilson said of Miami. “We’ve already started talking about how we’re going to expand this one (Aero Marine) with Mr. and Mrs. Tucker. They’re looking for federal contracts.”
Guzman is a proponent for the SBA’s Community Navigator program. With the approval of President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the program was started last year to boost small enterprises like the Miami Gardens aircraft interior repair firm in underserved communities across the country.
In October 2021, Florida International University was a recipient of a $2.5 million grant as part of the navigator program and is using the money to help Miami-Dade small companies.
