A Multicultural Lever for the
Economic Machine
A new Mass Mutual study sheds light on multicultural business owners
BY CHRIS MENDOZA
AS FINANCIAL SERVICES profes- sionals, we must understand the broader landscape of socio-eco-nomic trends in our country. The recession and economic upheaval of the last
few years has illuminated the significance
of small business owners in the U.S. Their
economic impact has manifested in the
American economy in several ways.
According to the U.S. Department of
Commerce, small business owners employ
nearly half of all private sector employees.
The Department of Small Business Administration notes that small businesses pay
43% of total U.S. private payroll. And the
Department of Labor notes that small businesses have generated 65% of net new jobs
in this country from 1993 through 2009.
With statistics like these, one could ar-
gue that small businesses are the backbone
of America’s economy, and we have a duty
to ensure that they survive and thrive so
that our economy can do the same.
tween these two broad markets. If we recognize the importance of minority-owned
businesses to the larger business landscape, then we should work to understand
what the unique differences are among
and between them. Once understood,
we need to work with multicultural small
business owners, first by educating them
on how they can plan for their business’s
long-term survival and success, and then
by helping them to put those plans into
action. In doing so, we are helping not
just the long-term health of these businesses, but of our national economy and
our country as a whole.
To this end, Massachusetts Mutual Life
Insurance Company launched a study,
