Business View Magazine l October 2022

86 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 10 show that our model works because MBEs gain additional support and resources to perform better.” Citing these favorable results for MBEs, McGuire wonders what kind of impact would be generated if NMSDC certified one million businesses up from its current 16,000. “What if we can provide opportunities to a million MBEs? What economic impact can we generate?” she asks. But to achieve these outcomes, NMSDC will need many more resources than it currently has. “Our affiliate in Michigan found in its study that if you don’t do anything different, it’s going to take 333 years to close the racial wealth gap in the U.S., which is unacceptable,” McGuire says. “The study also found that if private companies spent 1% more on MBEs each year for 15 years, 333 years can be reduced to just 15 years.” While NMSDC’s mandate is to help bridge the wealth gap for minority communities through entrepreneurship, McGuire says doing so does not just benefit these communities. “Closing the racial wealth gap is good for everybody,” she emphasizes. “Doing so will add $8 trillion to the U.S. GDP and unlock an additional $2.6 trillion in consumer spending while creating nine million more jobs by 2050. Our message is that growth for minority-owned businesses is growth for all and what NMSDC is doing does not just benefit a small group but everybody.”