BREAKING BARRIERS TO BUSINESS | NASHVILLE, TN

In Nashville, the sound of progress isn’t just echoed in its music.

It’s alive in the steady pulse of small businesses rising against the odds. A different kind of movement is taking shape, one powered by local entrepreneurs, grassroots leaders, and small business owners working to reclaim space and shape the future of their communities.

While Nashville is celebrated for its culture and growth, neighborhoods like Nolensville Pike, Bordeaux, and Jefferson Street tell a more complex story, one where small business owners face persistent barriers to capital, resources, and visibility.

Breaking Barriers to Business (B3) is an initiative to accelerate wealth-building pathways for business owners in five cities in the Southeast U.S., in partnership with Living Cities and supported by Truist Foundation. In a new docu-style series, we’re spotlighting resilient small business owners in cities across the country — entrepreneurs who are emerging as builders of change and champions of opportunity in neighborhoods long overlooked.

Nolensville Pike: Culture-Rich, Capital-Strapped

Nolensville Pike is one of Nashville’s most vibrant and culturally rich corridors, a globally influenced street where you can grab shawarma for lunch, tamales for dinner, and hear a dozen languages in between. It’s a place where diverse small businesses have shaped the local economy for decades, creating a dynamic and welcoming destination. But even in this thriving patchwork of cultures, entrepreneurs face familiar struggles: rising costs, theft and safety concerns, and limited access to funding.

“There’s a lot of stuff happening — people coming into the businesses, breaking windows, stealing petty things,” Tomas Yan, Associate Director of Conexión Américas, shares. ​“At the same time, those incidents come at a high cost for the business owners there.”

The B3 initiative is helping fill that gap. ​“We were trying to look for access to capital because funding resources are limited,” he continues. ​“Combining the help of Main Street and Living Cities has given us an opportunity to gather some funding for those businesses that just need a little push.”

This kind of support is opening new doors in a corridor where safety concerns and limited investment have long held businesses back. Through this partnership, local entrepreneurs now have expanded access to funding, expert business consulting, and a growing network of support and tools that make it possible not just to survive, but to thrive in a rapidly changing market. As Nadine Moore, owner of Birria Babe in South Nashville, reflects, 

“The Southside has been our home since the beginning. The people here became our friends and family. We love it here — we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. But this is the hardest time to be in the food and beverage industry, so the more support we get, the better chance we have to keep going.” 
 

Bordeaux: Investing in Untapped Potential

Tucked just ten minutes from downtown Nashville, Bordeaux remains one of the city’s last underdeveloped corridors, a place with wide-open land and deep community roots, but little commercial investment to match. Yet for many local leaders, this absence signals opportunity.

“Bordeaux is very unique in the sense that it’s probably one of the last areas in the city that has not had a lot of development,” says Sam Kirk, Executive Director of Creating an Environment of Success. ​“It has a couple of mom-and-pops, a Waffle House, but no sit-down restaurant. If we develop it properly, we can revitalize it and invest in the current businesses and help them grow without displacing anyone.”

That vision of revitalization, not replacement, is at the heart of the B3 team’s work in Bordeaux. Through strategic partnerships and targeted support, the initiative is helping local entrepreneurs gain access to capital, technical assistance, and business infrastructure that has long been out of reach.

For many in Bordeaux, the biggest hurdle isn’t a lack of ideas. It’s access to the funding needed to bring them to life. As Sam puts it, capital is absolutely the pain point. ​“A developer can come in with $15 million and build out a new economic hub. But for someone local to access even $2 million, it’s incredibly difficult.”

Beyond funding, he points to the need for deeper preparation and support for local entrepreneurs, starting before the capital ever arrives. ​“If you begin to help businesses truly structure themselves properly — where their accounting is in order, their bill payments and their technology is in order, and their marketing strategies are in order — it helps us operate more professional businesses.”

With initiatives like B3 and the forthcoming Bordeaux Economic Development Association, that groundwork is being laid to create space for local businesses to grow in place, and for economic development to be guided by the community it’s meant to serve.

Jefferson Street & Buchanan Arts District: Where Legacy and Innovation Intersect

In North Nashville, Jefferson Street stands as a cultural landmark, long considered the heart and soul of Black Nashville. Just blocks away, the Buchanan Arts District has emerged as a newer creative hub, brimming with walkable storefronts, art spaces, and a growing wave of entrepreneurs. Together, these corridors reflect both the history and the future of Black business in the city.

But with that growth comes pressure. Rising property values and outside investment threaten to displace the very communities that shaped these spaces.

“Our barriers are deep,” says Monchiere Holmes-Jones, founder of MOJO Marketing & PR. ​“We’re working to preserve our history and our narrative, but at the same time, we’re being outpriced. We’re kind of the last piece of the downtown corridor. And now, people are grabbing land at prices that are just unattainable.”

Still, business owners aren’t standing stagnant. They’re adapting, organizing, and reclaiming power in how their stories are told and how their businesses grow.

Danielle McGee-Gibson, founder of Boomin University, emphasizes that the conversation has shifted. ​“It’s not about handouts. It’s about empowerment. It’s about equitable opportunities for businesses that have been historically under-resourced.”

For founders like Nielah Brunett of InnerG Juice & Yoga, that empowerment is tangible. With support from local leaders and digital storytelling tools, she turned a juice bar and wellness studio into a symbol of what’s possible in an underserved corridor. ​“Trying to find a landlord who would take on this challenge with me was probably the biggest problem,” she shares. ​“But when I found the right support — people who believed in the mission — we were able to stand up our digital presence, tell our story, and finally open our doors.”

The B3 initiative is helping ensure that more businesses like Nielah’s not only survive these transitions but shape them. With access to marketing support, e‑commerce tools, community storytelling, and capital connections, Jefferson and Buchanan are becoming models for how legacy and innovation can move forward together, without leaving neighborhood roots behind.

Looking Forward: Building an Inclusive Future from the Ground Up

As Nashville grows, the future of the city won’t be measured by development alone, but by who gets to thrive within it. Across corridors like Nolensville Pike, Bordeaux, and Jefferson Street, local entrepreneurs are proving that small businesses stand as cultural anchors, problem-solvers, and builders of community wealth.