Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak meets with local Black business owners to discuss how to better support Nevada’s Black-owned businesses Wed. Feb 16, 2022.
Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022 | 2 a.m.
A group of Black small-business owners had a message for state leaders during a meeting with Nevada’s governor Wednesday at a Las Vegas hair salon.
They want more help to sustain and grow their businesses, but they emphasized they are not looking for a handout. All they want is an equal playing field, they said.
“I’d like to see it where these new organizations coming to Las Vegas, they’re put in a position where they have to have a minority business involved as a vendor,” said John Pinnington, owner of AA Printing Service, which has two Las Vegas Valley locations.
“Running a printing company, by the time I get to the table, the big boys have made a deal already, so a minority-owned business like mine can’t get a foot in the door,” Pinnington said.
Nearly a dozen business owners voiced concerns to Gov. Steve Sisolak during an hourlong meeting at Illusion Salon of Beauty on North Decatur Boulevard. They own businesses ranging from a barber shop to a mobile billboard company to an information technology firm.
The meeting touched on hardships businesses face as Southern Nevada continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as racial backlash faced by Black businesses.
Pinnington said he had noticed it has been less advantageous in recent years to promote his printing business as being minority-owned.
“I have a 100% Black business — all of my employees are Black — but I can’t put my picture on my website,” Pinnington said. “I can’t market that, and it’s so sad. We were going in a good direction, but we’ve gone backwards in the past five years, which is all because of politics. I built my business on Facebook, but I don’t even go on Facebook now because I feel I’ll be judged.”
Jo Cato, a former planning commissioner for the city of North Las Vegas, owns a mobile billboard and digital marketing firm called Periwinkle Group.
Several years ago, Cato said, she became more intentional about letting people know her firm was owned by a Black woman, but she quickly learned that it wasn’t good for her bottom line. About three years ago, she said, she changed course.
“I’m the only Black-owned mobile billboard company in the state, but can I proudly say that? No,” Cato said. “When I did that, my business went (down), so I had to change my website and identify myself as an employee of the company, then business picked up. I can’t go to these organizations, either private or public, and say that I’m Black-owned. I just don’t have those opportunities.”
Cato said the state could offer more programs to ensure large corporations and the state contract with minority-owned businesses.
Another solution discussed was recruiting more minorities to sit on state regulatory boards.
One business owner said she wanted to see more successful Black-owned businesses highlighted by the media and the governor and his staff in their public communications.
Sisolak pointed to the building of Allegiant Stadium — the $2 billion home of the Las Vegas Raiders, which was partially funded with tax dollars — as a business inclusion success story.
State legislation for the public funding required at least 15% of subcontracting work to go to small companies. It also called for minorities, including women, to undertake at least 38% of work hours at the stadium site.
Several people at Wednesday’s event praised Sisolak for his efforts in the area of diversity but said more needed to be done.
“We know the Urban Chamber has fought hard for us, but we need other people to fight as well,” Pinnington said. “We want people in the offices, people around the table, to fight for minority-owned businesses. It’s 2022, but I can’t stand up and say I’m a proud Black business owner. I don’t tell people I’m the owner.”
