Navigating Double Barriers: How Black Entrepreneurs in Québec Are Rewriting the Rules of Success

The scent of slow-cooked stew and the dream of cultural pride fueled Mariam’s journey to opening one of Montréal’s first Congolese restaurants. "I didn’t think about whether there were enough Congolese customers. I wanted to share my culture," she recalls. But without access to traditional financing or an extensive business network, Mariam relied on personal savings and community support — a reality faced by many Black entrepreneurs across Québec.

Entrepreneurship promises independence, but for Black business owners in Québec, it often demands navigating a landscape shaped by language laws, cultural nuances, and systemic barriers. A new study from the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (BEKH) in partnership with the Provincial Employment Roundtable (PERT) is offering the first in-depth look at these intertwined challenges — and the resilient strategies Black entrepreneurs in Québec are using to thrive.

Led by Dave Mckenzie and Sta Kuzviwanza, co-principal investigators, the project sought to uncover the distinct realities of Black entrepreneurship in a province where identity and opportunity are tightly bound to language and history. “The entrepreneurial path for Black Quebecers is shaped not just by ambition but by the need to overcome systemic hurdles — both racial and linguistic,” says Mckenzie.

While Black-owned businesses represent about 2.1% of all businesses nationally, in Québec, the intersection of race, language, and economics makes the landscape even more complex. Black Quebecers earn, on average, $8,000 less than non-visible minorities in the province and face higher unemployment rates — statistics that speak to systemic inequities.

In Québec’s unique linguistic environment, these challenges are compounded. Entrepreneurs like Ibrahim, a Montréal-based tech founder, explain, “It’s like starting from zero. No family wealth, no networks, no collateral to back a loan — and if you’re Anglophone, you hit another wall.” Existing national research often overlooks how language policy, cultural distinctiveness, and demographic realities shape the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Québec. This new study is a rare effort to capture that nuance.

To fully understand the situation, researchers conducted interviews and focus groups with 30 Black entrepreneurs from across Québec, supplemented by insights from five subject matter experts. These stories were supported by data from BEKH’s National Quantitative Study, which surveyed 2,381 Black entrepreneurs nationwide — 460 from Québec.

The research identified six critical themes that define the entrepreneurial experience for Black Quebecers:

•  Access to Capital: Many are locked out of traditional financing routes, relying instead on personal savings or community networks.

•  Community Orientation: Businesses often serve specific cultural or linguistic communities, limiting broader market access.

•  Language Barriers: Non-Francophone entrepreneurs face “double minoritization” — marginalized by both race and language.

•  Networking Challenges: Limited access to mainstream Québec business networks forces reliance on grassroots promotion.

•  Gender Dynamics: Black women entrepreneurs face intensified scrutiny and often juggle business with family responsibilities.

•  Informal Business Models: Home-based businesses and flexible models are common due to high start-up costs and limited institutional support.

 “It’s not just about money; it’s about access to networks, to knowledge, to belonging,” says Kuzviwanza. For Sarah, who operates a home-based hairdressing business in Laval, starting informal was the only viable path: “Without traditional funding options, I started in my living room, one client at a time.”

 Québec’s Black entrepreneurs show remarkable resilience, leveraging tight-knit community ties and grassroots networks to sustain and grow their businesses. However, the research highlights that these informal strategies, while creative, are often born out of necessity — a response to the barriers erected by systemic inequities and the distinct linguistic dynamics of Québec. “Every new customer is proof that we can build something lasting, even if we start with nothing,” one entrepreneur from Montréal shares.

Yet, the reliance on community alone is not enough to scale businesses sustainably in Québec’s competitive market, underscoring the need for systemic reforms.

Funded by the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (BEKH), this study aims not just to describe these challenges but to spark change within Québec’s unique context. “Our goal is to move beyond documenting disparities — we want to drive action that builds a more inclusive, bilingual entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Mckenzie emphasizes.

Recommendations emerging from the research include revising eligibility criteria for financing programs, expanding bilingual mentorship and business training, and fostering market awareness of the value Black-owned businesses bring to Québec’s economy. Supporting Black entrepreneurs isn't just an issue of equity — it’s about the future of Québec’s economy. Diverse businesses drive innovation and resilience, two traits Québec will increasingly rely on.

The study’s findings were presented at the 2025 Capstone Conference, where policymakers, entrepreneurs, and community leaders came together to discuss the future of Black entrepreneurship in Québec. The momentum from the conference is now fueling ongoing efforts to transform insights into concrete policy and ecosystem improvements. “If we support the person behind the business, we support the future of entrepreneurship itself,” Kuzviwanza says.