This Google program is helping Black and Latino entrepreneurs grow their businesses

When Google recruited JinJa Birkenbeuel to work as a digital coach in 2017, she had no idea what to expect.

Birkenbeuel, an entrepreneur who identifies as a Black woman, had long understood the challenges that Black and brown small business owners face, including a lack of access to financial, educational, and technological resources. But now Birkenbeuel was being asked to partner with a large, influential tech company to assist these same entrepreneurs in growing their businesses through Google tools–an opportunity she simply couldn’t pass up.

**JinJa Birkenbeuel** [Photo: courtesy Birk Creative]

The risk paid off. In the five years since Grow with Google launched, the program has expanded to 16 states, as well as the Washington, D.C. metro region. It’s the winner of the Large Companies category inFast Company‘s 2022 Innovation by Design Awards.

The program’s 19 coaches have led more than 1,800 workshops in both English and Spanish, serving over 100,000 clients and growing Google’s ecosystem. “We were really pioneers with what we were doing,” says Birkenbeuel.

As the Illinois regional coach, Birkenbeuel works alongside Google staff to connect with Black and Latino entrepreneurs in the state. She hosts a variety of workshops, most of which cover the basics of how to expand one’s business through Google, like setting up a Gmail account or using YouTube to advertise.

“Once you have a Gmail account, then you have access to all kinds of other free Google tools,” Birkenbeuel says, including the ability to engage with clients through Google Ads or examine customer trends using Google Analytics.

Understanding foundational Google applications can help make businesses more accessible to customers. The program’s workshops emphasize the simplicity of expanding one’s customer base through Google’s tools–the most popular one, for example, is a tutorial on how to register a business on Google Search and Maps.

Aisha Taylor, one of the founders of the Grow with Google Digital Coaches program, is particularly proud of how the workshops have fostered a learning environment. “Oftentimes we have learners that have been coming to digital coach workshops for months or even years,” she says, noting that some clients come repeatedly to build their skills, especially as the program continues to evolve.

“Community is so critical, especially with the Black [and] Latinx community,” she says. “So we looked at how we could actually create a program in partnership with the community, as opposed to just in isolation at Google.”

This story is part of Fast Company’s 2022 Innovation by Design Awards. Explore the full list of companies creating products, reimagining spaces, and working to design a better world.

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