Multicultural Business Resource Cemter at the Villager Mall
A partnership for success
By Jonathan Gramling  

    While minority-owned businesses have existed in the Madison area for most of Madison’s history, it has always seemed that barriers — both seen and
unseen — have seemed to prohibit the minority business sector from growing as the rest of Madison experienced boom years during the 1990s and
2000. Some of these obstacles have been relatively low concentrations of people of color in any one area of Madison sufficient enough to create
natural customer bases. In other cases, it’s been the lack of access to capital to see good business ideas become reality and survive during the start-up
phase of the business. And important minority business organizations came and went primarily because of the lack of administrative support to keep the
organizations going.
    In early 2000-2001, Santiago Rosas, then an East Madison alderperson, asked MATC to look into what it could do to support the minority-owned
businesses in his district. “From that request, we initiated a series of open sessions and we started with the Latino business owners to see what the
perspective on and need for such an organization might be,” said Maria Bañuelos, associate vice president of diversity and community relations at
MATC. “Is there a need for an organization that solely supports Latino small businesses? We did that for 1-2 years. It ultimately resulted in the initiation
of the Latino Chamber of Commerce. At the same time we were doing the Latino small business discussion, we started a discussion with the African
American community on African American small business owners asking the same question. Is there a need? Ultimately, we supported the initiation of
both of those chambers. It was a lot of grassroots work.”
    What resulted from their work was the formation of the Latino Chamber of Commerce and the African American Black Business Association (AABBA).
    The next step in the process was the creation of training programs specifically tailored to the needs of existing and potential minority business
entrepreneurs. Classes have been held in South Madison at the Villager Mall and at the Truax campus. But while these classes were helpful, they
couldn’t address the comprehensive needs that minority-owned businesses had and the barriers they faced.
    “Groups and individuals have continued to ask for assistance from us,” Bañuelos said. “We have found commonality on the questions people ask as
they are starting small businesses. And so the discussion was why don’t we come together — the two chambers, the city of Madison and ourselves — and
bring forward a ‘one stop shop’ for questions and services. We wouldn’t necessarily provide them. We would explain what is available in the community,
what resources there are to start small businesses in the community. We would actually try to get as many of the paper materials that are available,
whether it is for licensing or permits or whatever as well as having computer access and a directory of websites, whether it is the Small Business
Administration or other federal and state websites that would help businesses.”
    In an era of tight public resources, MATC and any other public or private organization did not possess the resources or expertise to make the dream
of a business resource center happen. And it could have taken years for the resources to establish the center to materialize through grant opportunities.
So Bañuelos and the other partners put out a call to the business support community to ascertain their interest and availability in establishing a
business resource center.
    “We called a meeting and asked who else should we invite,” Bañuelos recalled. “We invited some other folks and by the time we had our first
meeting pulled together, we had about 20 individuals or agencies who were interested and wanted to be a part of this resource center. We wanted to
pull those resources into the center and not necessarily push them to do any services at the center. We started the meetings in November of this past
year. We went from a couple of folks to now almost 30 people who are attending the meetings. These are folks who represent different agencies or
institutions. There are still a few who are coming in.”
    The result of these efforts is the establishment of the Multicultural Business Resource Center (MBRC) in the Atrium of the Villager Mall. Currently, the
MBRC is a patchwork of services from the participating agencies that have been cobbled together to provide strategic information and services to
minority-owned businesses. “We wanted these agencies to have ‘buy in’ to the concept,” Bañuelos emphasized. “No agency — no matter where an
applicant started — would be solely responsible for all of the services. Entrepreneurs would use the resource center as a ‘one-stop shop.’ So if you came
in and wanted assistance on expanding your business because you need revenue, we would say we cannot provide that service. We would say we have
some agencies who are our partners — Madison Development Corp. and some banks — and we would either set up an appointment for you if they have
staff hours at the center or hook you up at another location. What we want is agencies that are strategically interested in being part of a collaborative
synergy of services for individuals without having to have the individual go to 20 different sites to get those services. That’s the intent of this resource
center.”
    Currently, there is no funding for staffing the MBRC full time. And so, the partners are being creative in the assignment of staff to the center to ensure
there is a continuous presence. “Since MATC has been the leading agency since the beginning of the chambers, my personal perspective was that we
should take ownership of the support upfront of this new center and also take ownership of the location,” Bañuelos said. “The Villager Mall in South
Madison is a very central location for a number of minority individuals. People seem to know that is where the major activities to support minorities are
located. So what we’ve done is we have services there from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday and during the day on Friday and all day on
Saturday. Now we are starting half days on Sunday afternoon. We have three courses that we have piloted on Sunday afternoons that are going really
well. So we already have staffing that is there. There is no need for walk-in staff. The intake process for those individuals has to be developed in order to
get a consistency of information. We said we would do that. We would provide the upfront support because no one is going to be able to afford two full-
time individuals to cover the center just for intake. We already have those folks and that can be part of their assignments, the intake of individuals. And
hopefully, several of these agencies will provide some hours where they will be the first person who works with the entrepreneurs on the intake. Then
they would provide the resources or the connections to the other agencies.”
    Bañuelos has been pleased with the commitments she has seen to this point. Edgewood College’s School of Business has involved one of its
professors and his students. “The Latino Chamber is in the process of hiring an individual to work with their efforts and it is their intent to have that
individual housed in South Madison within our area,” Bañuelos said. “That will help us with additional staffing. And I have a nine-hour casual worker
who has been helping us coordinate this effort. She will continue to put some hours in specifically for this effort.”
    Even groups not typically associated with business development are pitching in for this important cause. The Wisconsin Women of Color Network will
be helping out with mentoring and support groups.
    The MBSC will provide services, information and referrals in five major areas: assistance with developing business ideas, assistance with business
advice and planning, business related workshops and seminars, entrepreneur support groups and financial resources.
    The partners have been asked to make a two year commitment to the center. And a strategic planning team composed of MATC, the Latino and
African American chambers of commerce, the city of Madison, UW-Madison, Workforce Development and Edgewood College will be evaluating the
project and determining what the continuing and evolving needs of the minority-owned businesses are.
    Bañuelos is pleased with what she sees so far, although she also knows it’s going to take a lot of effort — the same effort that is needed to start a
small business — to make the MBRC a reality and viable in the long run. “It’s very exciting so many people coming on board,” Bañuelos said. “Everyone
has different pieces of what they are going to be contributing. It’s going to be a quilt of many colors.” It will be a thing of beauty to behold.
    On April 12, the Multicultural Business Resource Center will hold an open house in the Atrium of the Villager Mall, 2300 S. Park Street, beginning
at 9:30 a.m. The general public is welcome.
Maria Banuelos is spearheading efforts to establish
a business resource center.