Why Minority-Owned Small Businesses Are the Backbone of Our Local Economies

Small, minority-owned businesses do more than keep a storefront open — they're where local governments get the jobs and tax revenue that keep a city running, and where diverse communities find the services that speak to who they actually are. Here's the economic case for backing them, and why it's personal for King's Dream.

The Economic Engine Governments Depend On

Small businesses aren't a side note in the American economy — they're most of it. They make up 99.9% of all U.S. firms, and between 1995 and 2024 they created 20.7 million net new jobs, versus 13.2 million from large businesses — 61% of all net new job creation over that span. Small firms alone account for 45.9% of private-sector employment, or roughly 62.3 million workers.

That's the base cities, counties, and school districts actually draw from. Every payroll, every B&O tax filing, every sales-tax dollar rung up at a neighborhood shop funds the roads, transit, parks, and public safety budgets that residents rely on. When a city like Seattle or Tacoma talks about a healthy tax base, it isn't an abstraction — it's thousands of small storefronts and service businesses paying into the system, block by block.

An Extension of the Community They Serve

Minority-owned businesses carry a second, less-measured value on top of the jobs and tax revenue: they're often the businesses a diverse neighborhood trusts most, because they were built by and for that neighborhood.

A Black-owned barbershop, a family-run taqueria, a Vietnamese grocery, a Tribal-owned gift shop — these aren't just vendors. For a lot of customers, they're the closest thing to seeing their own community reflected at them in a commercial district, and that familiarity is exactly what draws people in and keeps them coming back.

That proximity matters most in places that have historically been underserved or overlooked by larger chains and outside investment. When a business owner shares a customer's language, culture, or lived experience, they're often better positioned to meet needs a generic storefront won't — whether that's stocking the right ingredients, understanding a community's schedule and traditions, or simply being a familiar, trusted face. In neighborhoods across King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, that trust is infrastructure in its own right.

The Wealth Gap This Work Is Closing

The racial wealth gap in this country is stark, and it's the reason business ownership matters so much for communities of color specifically. The Census Bureau's most recent data (2021, via the Survey of Income and Program Participation) puts median White household net worth at $250,400 versus $24,520 for Black households — roughly a 10-to-1 gap. White households make up 65.3% of the U.S. and hold 80% of its wealth; Black households are 13.6% of the country and hold just 4.7% of its wealth. Nearly 1 in 4 Black households has zero or negative net worth, compared to 1 in 12 White households. Washington State's own Commission on African American Affairs has tracked a similar divide widening here at home, from roughly $20,000 in 1987 to about $100,000 today.

Business ownership is one of the most direct levers against that gap: it builds equity, generates income beyond a paycheck, and creates something that can be passed down. Nationally, minority-owned employer firms already generate hundreds of billions in receipts and payroll — Black-owned firms alone reported $211.8 billion in receipts and $61.2 billion in annual payroll in the latest Census data. Every one of those businesses is proof that closing the gap isn't abstract policy — it happens one storefront, one payroll, one family at a time.

Why This Is Personal for King's Dream

This isn't abstract for us. King's Dream Business Consulting was founded by Jawan Harris, who was born and raised in Skyway — unincorporated King County, just south of Seattle — and has watched the neighborhood change under the pressure of rising costs and outside investment that didn't always ask what the community wanted first. That's part of why King's Dream identifies as much with civil rights and conservation work as with business consulting: helping a small, minority-owned business survive and grow is one of the most concrete ways to keep a neighborhood's wealth, culture, and character in the hands of the people who built it.

It's also why King's Dream helped launch Shop Skyway, a business revitalization project focused on unincorporated King County's Skyway/West Hill area — the same community Jawan grew up in. Combating displacement and closing the racial wealth gap aren't side projects for us; they're the reason King's Dream exists.

The Bottom Line

Whether you're in Seattle, Tacoma, or anywhere across King, Pierce, or Snohomish County, the small, minority-owned business on your block is doing more than making a living — it's funding local government, anchoring a community that sees itself in that storefront, and chipping away at a wealth gap that took generations to build. Supporting it isn't charity. It's investment in the kind of local economy that actually works for everyone.

If you own a small business in one of our priority markets and want support growing it — or you just want to see more of this kind of work in your neighborhood — reach out to King's Dream. We'd love to hear from you.

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The Local Mogul is King's Dream Business Consulting's blog, covering news, wins, and insights from our work with public agencies, Tribal governments, and community partners across Washington State.