Pioneer Valley Small Business Connector

There are roughly 55,000 small businesses in Hampden and Hampshire Counties, and they are major drivers of jobs, wealth, and community life. Yet ownership does not reflect the region: people of color are about 29% of residents but own roughly 20% of firms, and while women are about 52% of the population, they own roughly 40% of firms. Businesses owned by people of color and women also tend to be smaller and are more likely to fall short of the financing they seek.

The Pioneer Valley has a small but strengthening set of mission-driven lenders — CDFIs and community development corporations — whose financing to businesses owned by people of color and women has grown rapidly in recent years. The gap is less about a shortage of capital than about connection: roughly three-quarters of the unmet demand could be met by better linking businesses to existing financing and developing new solutions to fill gaps, while about one-quarter comes from businesses that first need technical assistance to become financing-ready. The clearest through-line was awareness — many owners simply don’t know what is available, and the ecosystem that serves them is not well connected to itself.

This initiative grows directly out of PVPC’s regional economic development work — the 2024 cross-sector strategy effort and our Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) — and carries those priorities into concrete programs for the small business sector.

With guidance from the Advisory Group, PVPC is gathering the real-life experiences of business owners — through a survey of small businesses owned and led by people of color and women, a series of focus groups, and an assessment of the technical assistance available in the region — to design financing and non-financing programs that fit the way small businesses here actually work.