We’ve all heard the age-old adage, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” But in the age of COVID-19 that proposition is easier said than done if you’re a minority- or women-owned business enterprise.

As the United States marks the mournful milestone of 200,000 deaths from COVID-19, the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on people of color. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Blacks are dying at a rate 2.1 times higher than whites, while the death rate for Hispanics is 1.1 times higher.

The pandemic has revealed that if you are low-income and happen to be Black or Latinx, the fallout is more consequential from a health perspective and a business standpoint. Many businesses facing COVID-19-related closures are having to make the difficult decisions to furlough staff or to restructure.

Shelley Stewart Jr.The 1.1 million minority-owned small businesses with employees in America are an essential job source, employing more than 8.7 million workers and annually generating more than $1 trillion in economic output, according to McKinsey & Co. Inc. Women own nearly 300,000 of them, employing 2.4 million workers.

At the same time, limited access to credit is negatively impacting the health of minority-owned small businesses, according to McKinsey & Co. The COVID-19 crisis has magnified the economic hardships, as many minority and women’s business enterprises discover that obtaining credit has become even more difficult.

COVID-19 is an equal opportunity pandemic, presenting challenges to the engineering and construction industry in the U.S as well. Some construction projects have been delayed and canceled because of the pandemic’s impact on the companies that commissioned them, according to PwC, the brand name for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. And supply-chain bottlenecks of equipment and materials could cause project delays in currently funded projects or reduced spending on future ones, according to PwC.

Fortune 500 companies can do their part to help by providing senior-level advocacy and mentoring minority- and women-owned business leaders, as they try to navigate the COVID-19 minefield.

“Business diversity and inclusion can be a powerful vehicle for driving and sustaining change and represents one of the many important catalysts for action,” said Billion Dollar Roundtable Inc. Chairman Shelley Stewart Jr. “The Billion Dollar Roundtable urges greater numbers of corporations to join us in this important mission of empowering diverse businesses for the benefit or all society.”

In difficult times of protest and pandemic, change can come when we roll up our sleeves and get to work. BDR members are committed — more than ever — to identifying and promoting both dynamic and achievable solutions that will create opportunity for all, regardless of race, religion, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

The going may be tough, but we’ll get to the mountaintop of success — pandemic or not.