On the Road:

Welcoming Center

Explores Entrepreneurship

with the Federal Reserve in Louisville, KY

Amanda Bergson-Shilcock and Faith Weekly at the Federal Reserve

The Welcoming Center's Amanda Bergson-Shilcock (left) with Faith Weekly of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Louisville branch)

Dear Friend of Welcoming Center:

The Welcoming Center was honored recently to be invited by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to present a day-long workshop in partnership with their Louisville, Kentucky branch.

The topic: How to help entrepreneurs who are marginalized. Our Small Business and Outreach team shared practical information and key lessons with an attentive audience of economic development professionals.

Read on to learn more!

Similar Issues Across Communities

Our Louisville workshop explored the similar issues faced by immigrant and US-born entrepreneurs, including African-American, Asian, and Latino business owners.

Did you know that nearly 30% of entrepreneurs served by the Welcoming Center are American-born? While the majority of merchants we serve are immigrants, our small business services are purposefully open to all entrepreneurs, regardless of background.

From Individual Examples to the Big Picture

Prof. Chris Rabb

Joining us as a co-presenter at the Federal Reserve was Professor Chris Rabb of Temple University.

Rabb's trailblazing formulation of the concept of Invisible Capital led to the publication of his book by the same name -- and a recent TEDx talk here in Philadelphia.

What is Invisible Capital? In Professor Rabb's words:

Invisible capital is the toolkit of our skills, knowledge, language, networks, and experiences, along with the set of assets we were born with. Some of these assets are ﬁxed -- we cannot change who our parents are. Others are in our power to modify.

What makes all of them "invisible" is that our society does not acknowledge that entrepreneurial opportunities -- and thus entrepreneurial outcomes -- are greatly inﬂuenced by these assets.

What Invisible Capital Looks Like

During the presentation, Welcoming Center Director of Small Business Development Herman Nyamunga shared an example of a West African entrepreneur.

The Welcoming Center's
Herman Nyamunga
Presenting at the Federal Reserve

She had extensive experience running a courier business in her home country. Yet although she had served high-level corporate customers such as the World Bank and major US universities, when she approached an American lender she was steered toward a hair-braiding business -- an area in which she had no expertise!

In short: Her "invisible capital" was actually invisible to the lender -- leading to a frustrating experience that delayed and added costs to her business venture.

Nyamunga advised Louisville attendees to be mindful of the ways that their small business development services may fail to recognize or capture the full range of assets that prospective entrepreneurs bring to the table.

Working with Partners to Reach New Customers

The Welcoming Center works closely with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) such as FINANTA to ensure that entrepreneurs have access to the financing they need to launch and expand their businesses.

Services such as Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCA) help to formalize the informal "lending circles" that are part of many ethnic communities, ensuring that people who already make regular payments can build a credit record for the future. Read more about lending circles in this NPR article.

This year, we have also expanded our work with the Ukrainian Selfreliance Federal Credit Union, an important community institution serving customers in Northeast Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery County, and New Jersey.

Stay tuned for more about our small business work, and upcoming travels to Boston, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis!