Private, public cooperation key to Nashville's success with small businesses | Opinion

• Yolanda Greene is the Rutherford County market president for First Tennessee Bank.

Over the past year, the city of Nashville has upped the ante in supporting our community’s small businesses and minority and LGBT-owned enterprises by offering better opportunities to participate in city contracting.

Mayor David Briley has been steadfast in providing these business owners equal access to economic opportunities in our city. Nearly a year ago, he announced the formation of the Minority Business Advisory Council “to create opportunities for all business owners to prosper without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation.”

In January, he approved the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County Equal Business Opportunity Program. And in February he signed an executive order designating LGBT-owned businesses as a recognized minority category for bidding on city contracts, making Nashville the first city in the south to recognize LGBT companies in such a manner.

These are powerful steps in the right direction, but we can do more for small business owners.

Nashville is one of the best cities to start a business

A study by the public policy law firm Griffin & Strong found that in 2017 Metro Nashville awarded 16% of all prime contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses, with women-owned companies representing 8% of that total.

Small businesses have been and will continue to be vital to job growth. Since 2011, small businesses accounted for about two-thirds of net employment gains in the U.S., according to data from the Small Business Administration (SBA). Small business owners also employ 42.7% of Tennessee’s private sector workforce (47.5% nationwide). By helping these companies compete for new contracts, the city of Nashville can drive economic growth, create more jobs, and attract new businesses and private investment.

Over the past decade, Nashville has become one of the best places in the country to start and grow a business. And one of the reasons is the cooperation and coordination between the private and public sectors, which was on full display at the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2019 Small & Diverse Business Forum, held on Feb. 15 at the Music City Center.

The event, which was sponsored by First Tennessee Bank, the Music City Center and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, allowed attendees to meet with some of the most important decision-makers and procurement professionals in the hospitality and professional sports industries.

Panelists at the forum included senior executives with the Nashville Predators, the Nashville Sounds and the Tennessee Titans, as well as purchasing officers from the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority and the Music City Center.

NFL Draft will showcase Nashville's progress

Future economic development of our neighborhoods, cities and counties will be linked to public-private partnerships, and success for these PPPs lies in a government that provides equal access to all types of businesses.

This week, the eyes of the world will be on Nashville when the 2019 NFL draft comes to town. It will be an extravaganza – and an economic windfall – that our city has never seen before. It’s estimated that several hundred thousand fans will descend on our city and that tens of millions of viewers will watch the draft on television and over the internet.

Of course, those fans won’t see the work that’s being done to level the playing field for small and diverse businesses and close the gap when it comes to jobs, income and wealth.

But it’s the champions working together behind the scenes – like Briley, leaders at the Music City Center and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, and the countless supporters in our business community – who are making our city a model on how to promote and improve economic inclusion for all small business owners.

Yolanda Greene is the Rutherford County market president for First Tennessee Bank.