The second annual Minority Women-Owned Business Pitch Competition is accepting applications from business owners across New York City who are women of color. Four winners will be selected this year to receive a grant prize of $10,000 each.
The contest is put on by Carver Federal Savings Bank, a federally chartered stock savings bank founded in 1948 and headquartered in Harlem to serve African-American communities, in partnership with the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce. This year, Mastercard is a new sponsor.
Lloyd Doaman, executive director of Carver Federal Savings Bank, told amNewYork Metro that this year’s contest has expanded and upped the ante by doubling the amount of winners and quadrupling the total prize amount.
“We wanted to come up with an innovative way to provide support to small businesses that will come up with ideas to reduce their carbon footprint,” Doaman said. “We started this competition in response to climate change, and the disproportionate negative impact on communities of color.”
Applicants must be based in any of New York City’s five boroughs, own an operating business, and be a woman of color. They will need to provide information about their business and detail what their plans for the grand proceeds are and how the award will impact their business and reduce their carbon footprint. In this case, a business’s carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases generated by said business.
“We thought that it would be great for us to create this program to support businesses, so that they can actually focus on how to create more energy-efficient business operations,” Doaman said. “But at the same time, businesses that are located in communities of color will also reverse the negative impact of climate change through their operations through their projects and how they allocate these resources.”
The grant proceeds could be used for equipment for operational systems, materials, and other business-related projects that will create energy efficiency and reduce the business carbon footprint.
To help them implement their projects and business-related products and services, contest winners will have access to Carver Bank’s executive team and the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce’s board and executive teams. Winners will also have access to Midtown-based Mastercard’s tech hub and business resources.
“Winners have access to advice, capital, such as our MicroLoan program, and access to technical assistance to support any of their business needs,” Doaman said. “Mastercard also has some additional small business resources that they will have access to to help them scale up, pivot, and take advantage of additional opportunities in the marketplace.”
Diane Da Costa is 0ne of the two winners of last year’s inaugural business pitch competition who won $5,000 for her hair care salon and lifestyle brand SimpleeBEAUTIFUL. Da Costa told amNewYork Metro that after opening her business in Harlem just before the pandemic, she was forced to close the operations in July 2020.
“We were impacted greatly by the pandemic, as everybody was,” Da Costa said. “We were able to down staff with help from Carver. I’d gotten the first-ever bank loan that I’ve had in my whole business career in 25 years from a federal bank.”
Da Costa herself, as well as the other winner from last year’s contest, are both members of Carver Bank. Da Costa has a business checking account and received a loan from the bank, which lent itself to helping Da Costa find out about the business pitch competition in the first place.
“Of course I was going to apply,” Da Costa said. “I typically apply for every grant and every opportunity for that is afforded to women of color.”
The timing of the competition and winning the award came at a perfect time, Da Costa said. She was looking to change the lighting system in her storefront to LED lights and convert to sustainable packaging for her CBD beauty and wellness products.
“The carbon footprint would definitely be reduced because we are a holistic, vegan, organic brand,” Da Costa said. “Every product and brands I work with that I sell in the boutique and the salon is vegan and eco-friendly and clean.”
When she replaced her lighting, Da Costa tracked her energy efficiency by monitoring her ConEdison utility bills. She pointed out that the recent Con Edison utility rate hikes have thrown a wrench in her savings goals.
“From regular light bulbs to LED, we did see a decrease in our Con Edison bill,” Da Costa said. “However, they raised the rate out of the roof. So while we did have a little savings for a couple of months, it just went right back up.”
The other winner from last year’s competition, Princess Jenkins of Harlem-based boutique The Brownstone, used her grant award proceeds to launch her digital catalog, helping thousands of her clients reduce close to 200,000 sheets of paper and 100 trees, according to Doaman. Jenkins was also able to upgrade her lighting system to LED, just like Da Costa.
Despite both Da Costa and Jenkins being members of Carver Bank, Doaman assured any interested applicants for this year’s competition that “they don’t have to be members of Carver to apply.”
“That’s not one of the eligibility requirements,” Doaman said. “But it was helpful to get the information relatively quickly, just through our distribution channels.”
What’s more important, Doaman said, is that the competition supports women of color, especially Black women, and their projected growth in the business sector.
While Black women are the second fastest-growing segment of entrepreneurs throughout the country, with just over 3 million businesses, according to J.P. Morgan, the challenge is that Black women receive amongst the lowest in income wealth in the U.S.
“We want to make sure we close that income and wealth gap,” Doaman said. “This is just such a powerful and important program for our community and for our small businesses, and specifically for minority women business owners that so desperately need these resources as they continue to thrive and pivot after the pandemic.”
Doaman, who will be judging the business pitches again this year, suggested that applicants not only know their business and drivers, but also be able to articulate their projects and the impact of potentially receiving the award. Doaman added that both past winners had “fantastic presentations” and were “very clear as to how they were going to use the grant proceeds.”
“We just wanted to make sure that each business felt comfortable,” Doaman said. “We weren’t trying to put them on a hot seat. You don’t have to be this great orator or public speaker. “
Da Costa also passed on advice to interested applicants for this year’s competition, including how to frame the business pitch, understanding your numbers, and being able to present your product(s) to a panel of judges who will be “asking you very definitive questions.”
“First of all, don’t worry about you being with the bank or not,” Da Costa said. “I would also say the pitch is your defining moment. You definitely will have to know your business inside and out to win.”
