Congressman Ivey Hosts Hyattsville Small Business Town Hall

By Richard Elliott WI Contributing Reporter

On May 31, Congressman Glenn Ivey (D- District 4) held a small business town hall at Flavors Culinary Group in Hyattsville to gain insight directly from business owners about how his Congressional office, including his newly-hired Small Business Liaison Luis Murillo, can best help others get off the ground and continue to grow. The ten small business owners present had been through a Goldman Sachsled small business training program called 10,000 Small Business Voices, which invests into small businesses and provides them training.

“We are wrapping up National Small Business Month to acknowledge the resilience of small businesses and also to help you grow,” said program leader Jennifer Prosser to start the event. “The business owners that we work with are experts in their fields with great ideas, but who don’t know how to run a business necessarily. Rather than working in their business, work on their business and become the CEO they can best be.”

“This is the best part of the day,” said the Congressman as he enjoyed his breakfast and listened to both the challenges and successes of the present business leaders.

While Ivey expressed he was proud of the local business talent, he also believes that more work can be done. One idea he suggested to anchor small business growth in Prince George’s is working with local partners such as Bowie State University and Prince George’s Community College.

“In the last Congress, we secured a large amount of funding for small businesses. It’s over a trillion dollars from the Biden Administration along with contract opportunities, so we need to make sure we’re getting you the information,” Ivey said when asked about Congress’ prog- ress on small business assistance.

Ivey also said he worries that legal decisions which deem affirmative action unconstitutional may, in the long term, negatively affect business programs that aim to assist Black and women business owners.

Odessa Phillips, president of Assedo Consulting based in Prince George’s, was a graduate in the third cohort of the Sachs program. The biggest issue her firm has faced is difficulty in getting opportunities in government contracts, and the inaccessibility of some government websites to assist her business.

Chef Sharon, who prepared the banquet, stayed to listen. “I use Flavors as a licensed kitchen I can cook out of, and I was asked to prepare something for the event. I even learned about small business opportunities while present,” she said.

While the cohorts are based in Baltimore, about one-third of the graduates run businesses based in