Virtual Briefing: The State of AAPI-Owned Businesses in Massachusetts

Data show challenges and opportunities, with promises of new tools coming soon

September 24, 2024

Studying the power and impact of AAPI-owned businesses is a study in successes, challenges, contrasts, and sometimes contradictions. Those elements were highlighted and explored as the Asian Business Empowerment Council hosted a virtual public briefing on Setting Roots in Rocky Soil: The State of AAPI-owned Businesses in Massachusetts. The report, first released at a forum in June, surveyed more than 200 AAPI business owners on their business conditions, challenges they faced, and access to support services during and following the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a brief welcome, ABEC Director Q.J. Shi reviewed some of the report’s key findings, highlighting striking differences even among AAPI businesses in many cases. One example: businesses run by immigrants were twice as likely—by a 41% to 21% margin—to say their business was doing worse in the past 12 months, and businesses run by non-English speakers fared even more poorly, with about 2/3 saying their business was doing worse.

Across the survey spectrum, though, 1-in-5 owners said they felt the effects of continuing anti-Asian bias. Owners also expressed a general reliance on self-financing or friends and family for capital and support. Just 1 in 6 businesses said they had been able to access capital from banks or other institutions for business financing, and only 3% said they had received capital from outside investors, as legal and other documents limited many owners’ ability to access the process.

With those statistics setting the tone, Shi then invited Boston Little Saigon President Annie Le, Mei Mei Dumplings and PrepShift co-founder Irene Shiang Li, and M&T Bank Massachusetts regional president Grace Lee to a panel discussion. All three highlighted that the greatest challenges AAPI owners face aren’t about business operations but rather issues of culture and trust.

Irene Li noted that when she started Mei Mei, she was expecting to focus on making dumplings but instead found managing people and relationships and navigating language challenges added to her mental load.

To build trust and improve those relationships, Annie Le said Boston Little Saigon has focused on using events like their Night Market to bring traffic and resources to the Fields Corner neighborhood and develop strong relationships with small business owners. “We try to keep an open and trustful relationship with all our business owners so that we can figure out what it is that they need,” she said. “We'll provide information and the resources available, and even if we don't know the information, we can hopefully give them someone else who can help support them who's been through it.”

Grace Lee said building trust is also especially critical in her role at M&T Bank. “[Money], you know, is the most personal thing you're going to talk to somebody about, because it represents, you know, access to power or lack thereof. Access to opportunity, or lack thereof. Access to food, or lack thereof. There's this incredible shame that's put around, not knowing what to do with money,” she said. “We need to be great community partners because we are part of the community, and we try really hard to have our community be integrated in our banking services.”

Li tries to couple that financial services knowledge with personal experience at PrepShift. “Like many others in the restaurant industry, you know, I learned about restaurant finance the hard way. Nobody sat me down and explained it to me before I opened my business,” she said. “And so I think what we bring to the table, in addition to our technical knowledge, is the fact that all three of us on our team have worked in restaurants. We've owned them. We've managed them. We've washed the dishes and so there's so much energy. And there is also a lot of money out there to support restaurants, and we feel that we bring that first-person experience that helps us build the trust with our clients.”

As the panel wrapped up, Massachusetts Secretary of Economic Development Yvonne Hao highlighted new programs on the way to improve access to capital and information for small business owners across the spectrum to provide more personalized assistance. Called the Business Front Door, the new portal will allow a business owner to enter basic information about their business and the assistance they seek and let the office pair up that owner with people and resources to address their issue. The new portal is set to be online by the end of the year.

“We have so many programs and so many different ways to help companies, she said. “We just don't make it easy - So the Business Front Door, hopefully, will make that much easier.”

Agenda

Welcome

Q.J. Shi, Director, Asian Business Empowerment Council (ABEC) at the Boston Foundation

Report Presentation & ABEC Priorities

Q.J. Shi, Director, ABEC

Panel Discussion and Q&A

Annie Le, President, Boston Little Saigon
Grace Lee, Massachusetts Regional President, EVP, M&T Bank
Irene Shiang Li, Co-founder, Mei Mei Dumplings & PrepShift
Q.J. Shi, Director, ABEC (Moderator)