Sharif Small – Changing the Community, One Business at a Time
(originally published in WWIB BALTIMORE | NO.2 | APRIL 2025)
PHOTO BY P.A. GREENE
Baltimore native Sharif Small is on a mission to increase generational wealth in the Black community. The entrepreneur and community leader owns multiple businesses and gives back to his community by sharing the best practices for acquiring and managing wealth. Watching his father Clarence establish a tax practice planted a seed throughout Small’s childhood that shaped his future as a business owner and financial expert.
Today, he wears many hats as an accountant, real estate developer and financial planner, and currently, Director of Entrepreneurship for the Haysbert Entrepreneurship Center at the Greater Baltimore Urban League. Small’s growing business portfolio includes: S.J.S. Financial Firm, LLC, S.J.S. Properties, LLC, and its nonprofit profit organization Financial Empowerment Movement, Inc., where he hosts events that highlight the importance of multigenerational wealth to lift families out of a poverty mindset.
It might appear that Small, who took over the family business twenty years ago, was handed a silver spoon, but his reality is far different. He and his twin brother Taber were raised by their father in Baltimore’s Park Heights neighborhood. “Growing up in Baltimore City and seeing my dad sacrifice daily for us eventually motivated me to want better for myself, family and community…it helped to mold me,” Small said. The odds were not in their favor to thrive; and yet, they did.
Despite his childhood, Small had a passion for owning businesses and real estate and a powerful desire to make an impact on his community. He earned his associate’s degree in business administration from the Community College of Baltimore County, and a bachelor’s degree in accounting with a concentration in financial planning from Towson University. In college, he learned to lead and build relationships, helping to charter the student chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants. All these experiences have helped Small be the game changer he is today.
Through his nonprofit, he is teaching teens the importance of financial literacy and has founded
entrepreneurship clubs in schools throughout the region to educate students on the various
paths to business ownership. He is also expanding his community impact since taking the helm at the Haysbert Center in October 2024. “We don’t only think about starting businesses, but buying businesses and buildings as well, which led me to using SBA financing to acquire a FedEx routes business operations from another Black owner in Prince George’s County and his own office building on 25th St which is called Black Wall Street ,” Small said.
Small’s career has flourished thanks to the mentorship of financial industry leaders like LeCount Davis (the first African-American to achieve the designation of Certified Financial Planner), studying the achievements of business leaders like Reginald F. Lewis and Don Peebles, and his own proximity to Black entrepreneurs, including his aunt Peggy who owned a local ceramic shop and the building in which it was housed. He also attributes his success to his unshakable faith in God and the support of his beautiful wife Alicia, his father, and his brother.
Small is a shining example of not being defined by your circumstances. His advice for the next generation is to “Make God the center of your life. He will lead your path to greatness and success for a broader impact. Stay the course, don’t give up, and keep going no matter what.”