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at the end of the day, the only thing that creates real sustainable change is the dollar. Minority owned businesses don't always have the access to the kinds of the right kinds of capital. Black owned businesses are significant and they have impact and they make a difference in our community. We're changing the way people look at black owned business and we're changing the perspective for black owned business. Professional period on trivia understands the challenges. Black owned businesses tend to face to counteract that she founded the melon air marketplace. Black business hub in Louisville Kentucky, it gives black entrepreneurs a platform to scale their businesses, sell products and network. Our business are not handed down to us from generation to generation to generation. When we open up a business, a lot of us are open up business survival mode. The melon air marketplace helps black entrepreneurs overcome the obstacles by providing them with resources and mentorship to promote their businesses. So it's important for us to be able to have our space and have our businesses shops set up so that we can collaborate, cultivate and circulate the black dollar within our community. Historically, black business owners have faced unequal challenges on the road to success, often denied opportunities to advance their business with less access to money or prior experience in a family business. We don't always come to the table with the same resources that other people have or the same collateral other people have. So we're not able to leverage as much income for us to start our businesses, take Towanda ST potato pies in Birmingham for instance, de wanda Jackson applied for a small business administration grant, but it took several weeks before she got a response, it's such a small amount that we had to definitely uh step over into other um, you know, financial means thousands of minority owned small businesses were ignored or rejected in the first round of US stimulus money because they struggled to find banks that would accept their applications. In general, black entrepreneurs have less access to start up capital. They tend to start with about $35,000 compared to white entrepreneurs who start with about 107,000. It puts black entrepreneurs in a position to rely not only on their customers but the help of their counterparts. It's about making those connections, building those relationships and networking with black entrepreneurs that are reaching for that same goal and kind of helping each other out. It's true in Kansas city where the organization gift generating income for tomorrow fulfills its mission to save black owned businesses operating in low income areas. We are investing in these black owned businesses. We are expanding economic opportunity in the east side of Kansas city. We are creating jobs and opportunity. Gift raises grant money through small donations from hundreds of individuals to help businesses keep their doors open. We can all come together, we can all pitch in And create the change that we want to see. A recent study found that black-owned businesses have created over a million jobs and generated more than $165 billion dollars in revenue. If you support black businesses that gives them the resources to grow for them to be able to hire in their communities and to be able to give back. We're trying to close the wealth gap and we do that through entrepreneurship. So that's why you are starting to see this influx of Black-owned businesses and it's important that we support that in 2020, black entrepreneurship rose over 50%. This is our time to make change to make a difference to unify. I just feel that it's our time, but when lack of capital became an obstacle to success, people like Sandra Robinson stepped in and for me it's advocating for these black owned businesses getting them the exposure that they need, bringing the media to them, shining a light on minority businesses creates awareness in the community that also helps increase their bottom line building economic strength For some of these entrepreneurs. It's also time for representation. 50% of Children in the us are of color now, but if you go down the toilet, you don't see that represented their healthy roots dolls is a multicultural children's product company and our first dollar Zoe and she teaches girls how to love the curls because she has hair that you can wash and style just like your own. Meanwhile, in Kentucky, a mother's love led to the creation of her own business. I was looking for things to put into his nursery that reflected our culture and as well as things that he can learn from and that he could see himself in. And I wasn't finding much ebony's son, Declan inspired her to create baby essentials featuring 14 characters of all kinds of races and skin tones. We are all about representation, we are all about self love. We're all about speaking life into our babies and our Children investing in black businesses helps local retailers keep their vision alive. It also creates jobs and economic prosperity. Black owned doesn't mean black only. And so these businesses, they want green dollars. So I don't care what you look like buying black. It's not just a slogan. It's an investment into people and businesses making our communities richer in so many ways.