SEFFNER, Fla. — Many people dream of being their own boss.

But for some, funding that dream can be a huge challenge.

Ronald and Lynn Brown are business owners in Hillsborough County. The Chicago natives recently bought the Tampa Auto Spa and Sugababyyy’s food truck.

The two businesses are feet away from each other on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Seffner. 

But when the two business owners were first starting out, they had trouble finding financing. The Browns are not alone.

Just last year, the Small Business Administration issued nearly $34 billion to business owners nationwide. Only about eight percent went to Black entrepreneurs.

“Financing, they expect you to be coming to the door with nothing on your plate,” said business owner Ronald Brown. “They want your credit score to be a 800. Anything we come up with, they said it’s a high risk.”

Lynn Brown and her husband Ronald recently bought the Tampa Auto Spa and Sugababyyy’s food truck. The two businesses are feet away from each other on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Seffner. (Spectrum News/Dalia Dangerfield)

According to an analysis by the global investment firm, Goldman Sachs, Black business owners are turned down for loans at a rate three times higher than white business owners.

When the Browns launched their first business, a sports bar and grill near Chicago, they took money from their 401K retirement savings.

“Me personally, every business I ever started, I had to do on my own,” Ronald Brown said. “There was no help.”

A couple of years ago, the bar and grill burned down. The two were devastated.

“Devastating is an understatement,” Lynn Brown said. “That was our baby.”

The couple moved to Tampa Bay and started over with the car wash and food truck businesses. This time, they used the insurance money they received. The new venture has been off to a slower start than they hoped, but the Browns are banking on success.

“Nothing we started has failed,” said Ronald Brown. “So this is going to be a success, then off to the next adventure.”

The couple just hopes, in the future, other African American entrepreneurs who want to start their first business can have an easier time funding their dreams.