University of Notre Dame

UPBI uses a propriety model which provides entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds (99% from poverty, 99% BIPOC, 70% women, as well as formerly incarcerated, homeless, veterans, and many with literacy issues) the tools they need to develop a sustainable business.  In contrast with programs which teach formal business plans, UPBI has broken down the entrepreneurial journey into 80 activity steps, accessible to anyone from any background.  Over an 11-month period, the entrepreneur is taken through 6 stages of development including 6 weeks of core business training, 18 weeks of mentoring, 14 weeks of consulting, tailored training sessions, and is prepared for access to financing, and assistance with procurement.  During these 6 phases of the program, we walk together with the entrepreneur through a number of the activity steps.  As the entrepreneur gains confidence in themselves and their business venture, we find they are able to take the next series of steps on their own – progress begets progress.  The combination of the entrepreneurs’ personal development and leveraged access to the local university and community ecosystem has proven successful, and we have seen more than 300 local businesses launched within the last 3 years (in spite of COVID).  This model has been extremely successful in addressing internal and systemic barriers many entrepreneurs face in taking their business to a sustainable level.  Current UPBI cities: South Bend, IN; Milwaukee, WI; Baton Rouge, Lafayette, LA; Minneapolis, MN; San Diego, Los Angeles, CA; Dayton, Athens, Cleveland, OH; Camden, NJ; Chattanooga, TN; Auburn, AL; Gainesville, FL.

Poverty rates in the U.S. have remained largely unchanged in the six decades since President Lyndon Johnson launched the war on poverty. Many cities report poverty rates of more than double the national average, while poverty among minorities, and particularly African Americans, can be three times the national average. The persistence of poverty continues despite spending of over $1 trillion per year at all levels of government, and a consistent increase in annual spending per capita. While existing government support provides a vital lifeline, it does not appear to move large numbers of people out of poverty.  New approaches are needed, and one of the most promising is a market-based approach centered on entrepreneurship.

The success of traditional entrepreneurial training programs is predicated on certain levels of literacy, including reading, financial, business, and technology. Such programs also work better with scalable or growth-oriented ventures. In our low-income communities, as few as 27% are proficient in reading and 22% proficient in math.  Added to these challenges are a scarcity mindset, ongoing vulnerabilities due to a lack of resources, and difficulties focusing on the business based on the impacts of crime, food insecurity, chronic health problems, threat of eviction, job loss, and other significant distractions.  In short, the disadvantaged face exceptional challenges which must be met with tailored and innovative approaches if we are to see great numbers of these ventures become sustainable.  

Through the six stages of the UPBI program, we are meeting two aspects of The Challenge by providing proven practical and tailored training, and tools and technical assistance needed by entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds to build successful, sustainable businesses.  Our target audience is early stage entrepreneurs from disadvantage: 99% come from low-income backgrounds, 99% are BIPOC, 70% women, ages 21–70, and include formerly incarcerated, refugees and homeless. Our core 6-week training includes strategic thinking, operations, financial management, marketing, procurement, and how to build a business with limited (or no) finances using resource leveraging and guerilla marketing.  The training is followed by individual mentoring – the emerging entrepreneur is matched with a seasoned successful entrepreneur who provides guidance in taking the business to the next stage of development. The entrepreneurs flesh out principles learned in the training phase, bring discipline to the businesses, help set priorities, guide them through activity steps, and connect them to the local ecosystem. During the consulting phase, the entrepreneurs receive deliverables which support growth via development of marketing materials, social media campaigns, websites, bookkeeping systems, price analysis, competitive analysis, and systemized operational plans, to name a few. We provide support in preparing the entrepreneur for formal and informal financing options.  They are linked with University and community resources including shared space, collaborative procurement, legal aid, technology in their businesses, and logo design.  Additionally, we offer sessions in targeted areas such as qualifying as an WMBE certified owner, how to sell, financial literacy, and guerrilla marketing.  

This program has been birthed through years of running programs for entrepreneurs in various U.S. cities.  In speaking with community leaders in low-income areas, entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds, and conducting research to determine the best way to address the unique challenges faced by those in these communities, we have developed a unique model which has proven successful with the hundreds of entrepreneurs we have trained since launching this initiative 3 years ago.  Each year we conduct surveys and communicate with program graduates, as well as community leaders to identify ways in which our program can be refined, augmented, and strengthened. 

Over the past 3 years, the UBPI has expanded to include 14 partner cities, each addressing the needs of entrepreneurs from disadvantage.  All of our entrepreneurs come from a poverty background.  92% of our participants identify as Black, African-American or African; 5% Latino/a/x, 2% Asian, 1% Caucasian.  70% of those who attend the program are women, 30% men.  Ages range from 21–70.  Educational backgrounds have varied greatly: about 10% have not graduated high school, 55% have a high school diploma (15% have professional certificates or licenses). Another 30% have attended some college or received a bachelors degree, and 5% have graduate degrees.  Almost all of those we serve struggle to find employment which is sufficiently meaningful and/or which will provide economic security for themselves and their families.   Through this program, participants are able to find a way out of the cycle of poverty, to pursue an opportunity about which they are passionate, and expand their skills and self-confidence in the process.  Additionally, many of our entrepreneurs use this program and the businesses they develop to give back to their communities, either by offering employment opportunities to others, or meeting social needs such as anti-violence, food security, and youth mentorship. 

Targeted geographies include: Alabama, Florida, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee.

Additional locations include: California, Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin.

The mission of the UPBI program is to provide a pathway out of poverty through entrepreneurship.  We help empower entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds, and give them the tools they need to create sustainable businesses, and move them through 80 activity steps. Each cohort includes individuals at different stages of venture creation.  Of the 735 businesses across our fourteen partner cities, about 1/3 are at the idea (pre-launch) phase, 1/3 have a product or service that they are selling informally, and 1/3 have launched a business but are struggling to get traction.  Our focus is on moving all these to sustainability, which we define as generating enough profit to change the entrepreneur’s economic circumstances. On balance, we are more heavily focused on launching sustainable small businesses. 

An entrepreneur coming from a place of poverty or disadvantage faces more obstacles in starting and launching their business than people in other situations.  Obstacles come in many forms: literacy gaps including functional, financial, technological, economic, and business literacy, a scarcity (and very short-term) mindset, non-business pressures from family and environmental factors, and a lack of safety net.  For instance, following conventional wisdom, the requirement to create a business plan to begin a business can be an insuperable obstacle.  Our theory of change is simply put, “progress begets progress”.  By breaking down the process of developing a business into 80 discrete steps, walking with the entrepreneur, and providing support for each step, we have developed a proven and manageable pathway for the entrepreneur to create a sustainable venture.  In the short-term, the entrepreneur is learning business concepts in an accessible way, which they can immediately apply to the development of their businesses and also their personal lives.  As they progress in the creation of the venture, we also find that the entrepreneur is also benefiting from the process, gaining skills, experience, and confidence, which has a ripple effect on themselves, their businesses and their families. Further, as they move through the program as a cohort, the disadvantaged entrepreneurs encourage and assist one another.  As the business is established, we see an impact not only on the individual, but on the community as alternative role-models are put forth.  A significant number of our entrepreneurs identify ways to give back to their communities, through hiring others, or addressing issues in their community which are contributing to the cycle of poverty.  As we see a critical mass of businesses started by these entrepreneurs in a given neighborhood, we anticipate spillover benefit in terms of crime reduction, improved school completion rates and related social returns.  This program, multiplied across the U.S., has the potential to significantly impact cycles of poverty and opportunities for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Finally, by monitoring these ventures for three years on 40 variables, we are able to learn what works and continually adapt our approaches.

The Urban Business and Poverty Initiative (UPBI) network has added 9 new cities over the past year, for a total of 14 partner cities. As most of these programs are just getting launched, our numbers for 2023 reflect a substantial increase over the current year total.  The 5-year estimate is based on an anticipated growth of 5 cities in 2023, plus 7 new partners a year between 2024-2027, bringing the total number of UPBI cities to 40.

Current number of disadvantaged entrepreneurs serving (2022) – 735

Number of disadvantaged entrepreneurs to be served in one year (2023) – 1,235

Number serving in 5 years (2027) – 2,375.

Total cumulative number of entrepreneurs served in 5 years – anticipated 8,045

We serve entrepreneurs from disadvantage, drawing primarily from low-income communities, the residents of which are primarily BIPOC. They include the underemployed, single mothers, the formerly incarcerated, refugees, and women from shelters. Our stakeholders include formal and informal minority community leaders, leaders of key non-profit organizations, religious institutions, as well as city offices tasked with cultivating economic development and addressing DEI development issues. From these stakeholders we learned what structures and supports were needed to have maximum impact.  Additionally, we made a commitment to key stakeholders to see a minimum of 200 sustainable businesses created in each city over a five-year period, which helped to develop trust as we began this initiative. As UPBI has succeeded, that trust and the strength of those relationships has grown.  We regularly meet with and report to these stakeholders and volunteer on select boards to ensure UPBI is having the intended and optimal impact.    

Over decades of working at the interface of poverty and entrepreneurship, we have engaged with community members in their spaces to develop a program tailored to the realities of starting a small business from a place of poverty and disadvantage.  We learned there are several unique obstacles which need to be creatively addressed if we are to see significant numbers of entrepreneurs established.  These include literacy gaps (functional, financial, technological, economic & business literacies), a scarcity mindset (which produces a short-term and trade-off mentality), non-business distractions (e.g., crime, food insecurity, threat of eviction), and lack of a safety net (absence of resource slack and vulnerability to setbacks). Our tailored approach to these obstacles and unique toolkit meet these entrepreneurs where they are, enabling the establishment of more sustainable ventures by those who come from disadvantaged circumstances.

In addition to our collective experience working with entrepreneurship and poverty, many of our UPBI leaders are BIPOC and several come from poverty backgrounds, which enables us to identify with the unique challenges faced by the entrepreneurs we serve.  We emphasize having diverse presenters speak to the issues they have faced and overcome in establishing their own businesses, and many of these individuals serve as role models to a community that does not generally have entrepreneurial role models.  Throughout the 11-month program, we help our entrepreneurs set goals which reflect their own needs and lifestyle goals, understanding the unique multi-faceted challenges they may face while beginning their venture.

The program is infused with community support at every level. While managed by university and non-profit partners, all aspects of the program are delivered at locations in disadvantaged neighborhoods. We also regularly host events we call Community Connect where the broader business community is invited to connect with the emerging entrepreneurs and leverage their resources – services, facilities, assets – to help expedite their journey to sustainability and success.   The entrepreneurs are matched with successful mentors, many of which are BIPOC and have overcome similar obstacles. 

Finally, we regularly connect with the entrepreneurs which have come through the program to identify ways to refine our approaches and amplify the impact of our program.  

Over the three years we have been operating the UPBI program, we have built trust within the community and with small business owners by being people of our word.  We began by committing to local community leaders that we would raise up 200 sustainable businesses started by people from disadvantage within five years in each city, and we are on track to keep that commitment.  We are leveraging university resources – law, design, IT, procurement opportunities for example – to open doors which have historically been closed.  The program we have designed is accessible to anyone of any educational background and people with no financial resources.  As more and more businesses are launched, more individuals from adverse circumstances are stepping forward to enter the program and give shape to their dreams. Finally, we regularly communicate with all stakeholders, including a quarterly progress report.  

Through the replication of the UPBI model through the UPBI network, we will be able to accelerate the scale and impact of the program across the U.S.  We provide UPBI partners a complete toolkit so they can replicate our programs and get them up and running with minimal effort.  The impact goals for 2022-23 reflect the limited activity of our newest 9 partners.  We are anticipating that we will bring on 5 new partners in 2023, and 7 per year 2024-2027 bringing our total number of partners to 40. 

Our impact goals for the next 12 months are:

• Provide entrepreneurship training to 735 entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds
• Entrepreneurs complete 9,371 activity steps with the assistance of mentors and consultants
• Entrepreneurs complete 9,371 activity steps on their own
• 500 new ventures started
• 750 new jobs created

Cumulative impact goals for the next five years include:

• Train 8,045 entrepreneurs in business principles
• With support of the UPBI program, entrepreneurs complete 102,574 activity steps in support of establishing their business venture
• Entrepreneurs complete 102,574 activity steps on their own
• 5,471 small businesses are established across the US by BIPOC
• 8,206 new jobs are created by BIPOC in low-income areas
• 1,824 entrepreneurs directly or indirectly begin re-investing in their neighborhoods through in-kind donations, or the establishment of non-profit organizations 

The lead on this project has lived in poverty and has dedicated his professional career to developing entrepreneurship programs for people in adverse circumstances, in urban and rural contexts, as well as on multiple continents.  He has also produced a significant body or research that has shed new light on the needs and challenges faced by these entrepreneurs, and how they can be overcome. Through this experience, he has developed a proprietary model which breaks down the unique factors faced by people in poverty, and an integrated approach for making the process of establishing a successful venture much more accessible to those with limited time, resources, education, and connections.   Likewise, our 13 UPBI partners have extensive experience working in low-income communities, several are from minority backgrounds, and many have focused their careers on establishing best-practice means of raising up entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds.  Collectively, the directors of the partner programs supported the launch of thousands of ventures prior to becoming part of the UPBI partnership. We also represent a range of socio-economic backgrounds, geographic backgrounds, genders and age groups. We believe a solid foundation has been built with the UPBI program, and that support from Truist will enable us to take the program to the next level---generating more ventures by those in adverse circumstances but, more critically, ensuring more of these ventures are sustainable and improve the economic condition of the entrepreneur and his/her family.

We are applying to the Truist Foundation Inspire Awards because the mission, “to build pathways to economic mobility and strengthen small businesses,” is precisely aligned with our own.  In addition to financial support, we would greatly benefit from the hands-on support and training offered through MIT Solve and the Truist Foundation.  

Program rollout: As we expand the UPBI partnership we would welcome input from the resource partners, mentors, and coaches who could advise us in the best ways to scale our program and maximize the resources we have to provide the support our partner cities.. 

Infrastructure to support Partner Cities: W would value the technological input regarding best ways to build out our resource support platform. 

Financing for disadvantaged entrepreneurs:  We have received funds allowing us to offer a limited number of $2000 micro-grants to entrepreneurs who achieve at least 25 of our activity steps. As the entrepreneurs are making real progress, demand outstrips supply, and we need to expand the micro-grant pool.

Validating model:  Through the monitoring and evaluation services, we would welcome assistance in integrating and systematizing the data collection across cities. 

Expanding visibility:  Expanding public relations initiatives would enable us to make the program more visible on a national level, which would accelerate our impact.

More support for businesses: With the network of resource partners, mentors and coaches we would welcome the opportunity to expand the network of professionals across cities that help support our entrepreneurs, and developing the capacity to connect disadvantaged entrepreneurs across cities.  

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Our partnership strategy involves collaboration with partners at three levels:

Level One:  With each city to which we expand, there is a prime partner. These are universities or non-profits.  We currently have 13 prime partners coordinating delivery of the UPBI program within their communities.

Level Two:  In each of the communities, our prime partner works with local partners.  For example, in South Bend, local partners include Project Impact, Goodwill Industries, La Case de Amistad, City of South Bend’s Diversity and Inclusion Office, SCORE, NCI Small Business Development Center, the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, Ivy Tech Community College, and the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership. Level Three:   We seek national and regional partners to support ongoing development of the overall UPBI program and each of the partner community programs.  Examples include the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, both of which provide platforms for us to recruit new university partners and raise the visibility of poverty issues, as well as WorkRise (Urban League) which is supporting research tied to our work with those in poverty. We need to do more in this area, and the potential for partners accessible through Truist is very exciting.

Our third partnership category includes the kinds of partners available through the Truist network.  We see significant potential for such partners to help us in supporting the overall UPBI program as well as directing assisting our partner cities and the entrepreneurs they serve. Examples of areas in which we think these partnerships might be helpful include addressing literacy gaps (e.g., functional, technological, financial), expanding micro-credit options for early stage ventures started by those in poverty, industry-specific and functional area-specific mentoring expertise, establishing collaborative procurement partnerships across ventures in similar industries, best practices in managing community partnerships, and measuring community impact, among others. We have reviewed the partners listed, but may not be aware of all the partnership available through MIT Solve or Truist Foundation.  From the list, examples where we can see possible connections include:

• Patrick J. McGovern Foundation - support building out analytics platform;
• Kauffman Foundation – support for building out micro-grants initiative;
• Morgridge Family Foundation – Assistance in helping us validate the community
• impact of UPBI;
• Connect Humanity – help with digital literacy training for entrepreneurs; and
• Truist – help with financial literacy training for entrepreneurs.