Fayetteville Today

Fayetteville ranked above major cities like Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Richmond to lead the nation in the number of Black-owned businesses in the city.

In a Feb. 16 report, Center for Economic Empowerment and Development Executive Director Suzy Hrabovsky told the Fayetteville Observer that the city is one where small businesses can succeed, emphasizing her happiness that everyone feels like they can start their own business and make it work for them. 

“That's what entrepreneurship is; it's that when you see a problem, you figure out a way to overcome it,” Hrabovsky told the Fayetteville Observer. “So I think African-American business owners saw a problem and decided they wanted to contribute and be of service to others and fix the problems and I love it."

The results come following a recent LendingTree study, which revealed that 11.2% of the businesses in the city are Black-owned. According to the report, this marks a total of 585 Black-owned businesses out of 5,210 businesses city-wide. The study also found that 35.4% of Black-owned businesses were owned by women compared to only 20.9% of all businesses being women-owned.

The Fayetteville Observer reports that both the Cool Spring Downtown and the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau have resources highlighting Black-owned businesses, and that the Bureau hosted a list of local Black-owned businesses on its website as part of Black History Month. Black-owned businesses in the Cool Spring Downtown District may also be identified by markers on the front door or window of their establishments.