.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Here we are, a few years into the 21st century and long past the era of civil rights battles. Why do minorities still need help from the government to start and run small businesses?

“In 2015, the American-born white male will be a minority,” says Ted Williams. “When white guys become a minority, let’s talk.”

Williams is president of the African-American Business Association, and he also was co-chairman of the Targeted Small Business Task Force, created by then-Gov. Tom Vilsack. With Williams and equally assertive fellows like Wayne Ford and Jack Hatch on board, this was one task force that actually got something done. Its recommendations led to the passage of an Iowa bill that provides $4 million this year for a TSB program that helps women, people of color and people with disabilities start small businesses.

Pretty good, especially when you consider that the funding in the previous year was zero. And the year before that was zero. And so forth. “The program was started in 1986, and the highest level of funding was $685,000,” Williams said. “From 2000 to now, there was no funding at all.”

How did it fall through the cracks? “Programs like this seem to be the first to go,” he said.

Williams’ experience with minority-owned businesses goes back to his childhood in Memphis, when his parents operated a grocery store “in the heart of the ghetto,” as he describes it. Now he and his wife, Nancy, operate The Williams Group, a human resources management consulting company, from an English Tudor home south of Grand. Apparently they know how to make a business go.

Not everybody does, however, and the Targeted Small Business Program is designed to help clear the path. It provides low-interest loans or equity grants of up to $50,000, and Williams said the process has been restructured for greater efficiency.

Why do we need to worry about small businesses?

“Anybody who can count is aware of the demographic shift across the country,” which is expected to create huge job vacancies, Williams noted. “Where are they going to get the people? It’s not all going to be majority people.”

He seems to be off on a tangent there. The search for corporate employees is not the same as individuals wanting to start their own businesses. But no, Williams says, those are two parts of the same puzzle.

“Even if large companies were to find the staffing they need, it’s not all going to be in-house,” he said. “There will be outsourcing, and that’s where we come in. The big companies need jobs filled, but in many cases … they need functions accomplished.”

Williams lived in San Francisco for 20 years and New York City for five, but for the past 12 years he has called Des Moines home. When he moved here, “I thought ‘Oh my God, where are the sushi restaurants, where’s this, where’s that?'” he said. “But in the 12 years I’ve been here, I can feel the energy growing.”

Unfortunately, a lot of that energy has been powering just a handful of big players. “In my opinion, there were quite a few in the minority community who were disenchanted,” Williams said. When deals are being made, they often aren’t at the table.

We’ll see if the TSB funding helps. Grants are expected to start flowing in September. But the funding is just for one year, so there’s always the chance that the program will fall through the cracks again.

If that happens, Williams said, “I think the forces would reunite.”