Durham Black business owners stand behind Harris’ vision for small business growth

Local small business owners and lawmakers rallies recently behind Kamala Harris’ new small business proposal, which includes expanded tax credits, cutting red tape, and easing startup costs.

After graduating college, Megan Cain, a Black small business owner, started The ZEN Succulent, a plant and gift shop, as a website in 2012. With the few resources she had, she said, and years of work she put into the business herself, eventually she turned the virtual store into a small brick-and-mortar shop on Durham’s historic Black Wall Street. 

The first dollar she earned, she said, is still working for her nearly 10 years later.

“Building my business to where it is today, required a lot of hard work, sacrifices and a lot of energy and effort,” Cain said.

Last Friday, her shop—filled with over 100 plants, Harris For President signs, and just enough space for three chairs to sit in—became the backdrop for a bigger conversation about the future of small businesses under a Harris administration. If a recent plan for small businesses by Vice President Kamala Harris had been available to Cain when she started, Cain said, it would have been life-changing for her and other middle-class startups.

And with less than 60 days before the 2024 election, they firmly rejected Republicans’ Project 2025, which would offer substantial tax breaks to the wealthy that opponents say would end up costing more for working middle-class families.

 

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A plan for small business’ success

Harris’ plan, which would expand tax credits for new businesses from $5,000 to $50,000, aims to ease the financial burden on new entrepreneurs and incentivize more people to start businesses, particularly in underserved communities.

Cain spoke alongside small business owner Lashonda Fort Modest, who created Durham’s first Black-owned winery Melanated Wine, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee, and State Rep. Zack Hawkins. They talked about how the new plan could address the common challenges entrepreneurs face when starting out, especially with the lack of resources for new startups.

READ MORE: Kamala Harris proposes plan to make it easier for North Carolinians to start small businesses.

The vice president also plans to cut through the complicated “red tape” many startups face, eliminating some regulations and paperwork that slow down small business operations.

For the first eight years, Cain said, business was great, but then the COVID-19 pandemic, and response from the Trump administration, halted progress. 

During the shutdown, millions of Americans lost their jobs, and about 200,000 small businesses closed their doors. In 2017, Donald Trump cut more than $40 million in federal support for small businesses owners and their workers, which slowed down new business applications and left hopeful entrepreneurs to struggle. 

That’s money businesses could have used to stay afloat during the pandemic.

“Things did not have to be bad,” Cain said. “A major reason small businesses struggled is because of Donald Trump’s abandonment. In the middle of the deadly pandemic, Americans and small business owners needed a leader to lead us by the hand, keep us on track and save lives. Instead, Donald Trump failed us.”

RELATED: Project 2025 has Trump’s fingerprints all over it, NC Democrats say.

In Durham, an estimated 25% of the city’s Black-owned businesses closed permanently.

“And we are not going back,” Rep. Hawkins said. “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will never stop fighting for our communities and small businesses, and will never put corporations or the wealthy over small businesses and the middle class. They care about us, about an America where middle-class North Carolinians have the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead.”

Revitalizing Black Wall Street

(Photo via NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources)

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, downtown Durham was home to “Black Wall Street,” a hub of more than 200 Black-owned businesses that provided jobs and economic opportunities to underserved communities otherwise cut off from the financial sector.

With much of that business district disrupted over the years, due to construction and developments, recent efforts to revitalize the area have caused a resurgence on Black Wall Street, local business owners say.

“And that’s thanks in part to Vice President Harris working since day one to ensure Black-owned businesses have the capital they need to get started and grow,” Congresswoman Foushee, who represents Durham, said at the event.

The Biden-Harris administration has implemented several policies that have helped communities that have historically been left behind, such as Durham’s Black Wall Street.

These initiatives include the Economic Opportunity Coalition, a partnership of public and private organizations that invests in underserved business communities, and has brought $3 billion to Durham’s small businesses.

In a social media post, Harris said small business owners and entrepreneurs are more than leaders in business.

“They are civic leaders, community leaders, mentors, and inspirations,” Harris said. “President Biden and I continue to invest in their dreams and ambitions as we support our nation’s small businesses at record rates.”

The goal for Harris’ proposal is to break the current record of 19 million small business applications–the fastest creation of Black-owned small businesses in more than 30 years–held by the Biden-Harris administration, to 25 million applications in her first term as president.

“This is really important for Durham County,” Hawkins said. “This is really important for East Durham downtown and Black Wall Street. Imagine what that could mean for the rest of our state.”

On average, it costs $40,000 to start a new business. And for small business owner Fort Modest, she said that number was almost impossible for her when she started her winery.

“But Vice President Harris knows that’s not enough to account for all of the costs associated with starting a business,” Fort Modest said. “And she knows that number doesn’t account for everything our businesses contribute to the local economy.”

 

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Their message is clear: Harris’ proposal offers hope for North Carolina’s new entrepreneurs, while Project 2025 would leave them behind.

“As a proud Black business owner, I understand the stakes of this election,” Fort Modest said. “This election is a choice between two different economic visions: One that builds up the middle class, versus one that helps billionaires and corporations at working families’ expense. And Vice President Harris knows whose side she’s on.” 

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