In honor of National Small Business Week 2019, we’re featuring a series of video tips for small business owners from Google’s Digital Coaches.

The Coaches host workshops on building an online business, based on their own experiences as small business owners in cities around the U.S. Many of the Coaches’ workshops are taught as part of the Grow with Google program, which offers free training and tools to help people grow their skills, career, or business.

In our fourth tip video, Francilia Wilkins Rahim, Google's New York City Digital Coach, offers advice for minority small business owners in the New York area: tap into programs designed to support your community. Your participation helps to grow your local community of entrepreneurs, leading to more visibility and a larger, stronger network. Plus, there may be untapped economic and other resources your city or state has alotted to support your community that you can tap. Although Francilia's advice focuses on New York, it's a tactic that's relevant for underrepresented entrepreneurs in any city.

Francilia draws upon her experience as the founder and CEO of R.F. Wilkins Consultants, a business management and development consulting firm with a portfolio of offerings ranging from commercial property development to non-profit program expansion, and grant- and proposal-writing. Watch her share her advice, below: