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When Keith Millner, wife Charmaine and two of their friends opened a Jersey Mike’s Subs sandwich shop in Atlanta in 2019, they had no idea they would end up working behind the counter. Their doors opened in November 2019, four months before the Covid pandemic shut down the country. When businesses started reopening in July 2021, the nature of commerce had changed — and Black businesses felt the reverberations. For this group at Jersey Mike’s, part of the work became finding dedicated workers post-pandemic. With little to no options, they were forced to don aprons and hats and roll up their sleeves. “It’s either that or close the business,” said Millner, a former commercial banker who now trains individuals and organizations on corporate culture, public speaking and other areas. “We were trained on every aspect of the business. So, yeah, we ran the counter, made sandwiches, worked the grill, ordered inventory — whatever it took. And we still do.” A recent study of small business owners ...