A non-profit devoted to supporting small businesses in Massachusetts is expanding its footprint, with a center geared toward connecting new and potential business owners with an assortment of resources.
For over three decades now, Common Capital has served small businesses across the region. The community development financial institution provides capital and educational resources to small business ventures that often can't secure funds through conventional sources.
Launching in Greenfield in 1990 (originally as the "Western Massachusetts Enterprise Fund"), it's gone on to become a subsidiary of fellow non-profit Way Finders, sharing office space outside Springfield’s Metro Center.
But as time’s gone on, President Raymond Lanza-Weil says the need for better accessibility and visibility became clear – culminating in a new “Business Resource Center” opening downtown on Bridge Street, complete with a ribbon-cutting Friday.
“I started, about a year-and-a-half ago, looking for space to rent in downtown Springfield, so that … we could be facing the street, facing our business owners and have our own space where we could have a classroom and meet with borrowers - either one-on-one or in a group, and really bring borrowers together with one another so they could learn from one another,” he told WAMC.
That means better access to credit counseling, an in-house business training curriculum and more, putting potential borrowers in contact with how they could secure fixed-rate loans ranging from $1,000 to $300,000 dollars.
Common Capital says since 1990, it has made loans totaling $32.7 million to over 800 businesses, leading to the creation or retainment of over 2,000 jobs.
Numbers from 2023 show a loan portfolio totaling $7.7 million, with just over half of those loans made to businesses owned by women and people of color.
Among those ventures was Rozki Rides - a transportation company owned by Jessika Rozki.
Speaking to a crowd before the ribbon-cutting Friday, the former school bus driver described purchasing her first minivan for $7,000 without knowing what was to come: a future company with over a dozen employees and a dozen vehicles.
“Growing up in a situation when you don't really know about money, and you don't really have the resources and people teaching you about the importance … of a loan versus an asset and a liability - you are scared to get into those places,” she said. “But, as Common Capital was able to sit there and help me and navigate this, all this information, I was finally able to get the loan to be able to purchase my first, brand new school bus.”
Rozki says the loan not only made the new school bus possible – it also paved the way for the company’s first school contract with Springfield, totaling just over $2 million.
Pointing out that Massachusetts is home to over 600,000 small businesses that employ nearly half of the state’s workforce, Springfield State Senator Adam Gomez referred to Common Capital as crucial to boosting local microbusinesses — taking chances on ventures that typically aren't able to secure capital from banks and other institutions.
“When small businesses flourish, entire communities benefit,” he said. “I think economic vitality spreads through local job creation and increasing spending and enhanced community wellbeing. This ripple effect strengthens the economy’s footprint, of our commonwealth and our city.”
Mayor Domenic Sarno calls the non-profit a "great partner" of the city.
To Lanza-Weil, whether it’s a healthcare business in Southwick, a bakery in Amherst or a film lab in Holyoke – businesses like those making use of Common Capital make up the financial backbone of the area.
“When you see a so-called … mom-and-pop grocery store or a gas station or a bowling alley, those small businesses employing, typically, fewer than five people and with relatively small sales, that seems small, when we hear about all these corporate giants every day in the news, but these are the folks that are creating jobs for themselves and their families and creating economic activity in our communities - that is truly the backbone of our economy,” he said.
Speaking to WAMC in the new office space, he adds the resource center received support in the form of $50,000 from the MassMutual Foundation.
The nonprofit is also looking to raise another $100,000 to finish outfitting the space with a virtual classroom.
