consultant for marketing, www.myprbook.com
Robert Smith and Associates
August 05, 2008
According to the U.S. Census we know that African Americans showed the biggest growth in entrepreneurship in 2004. There are an estimated 880,000 Black owned businesses in this country.
It should come as no surprise than that the purchasing power of African Americans is $600 billion per year.
Many of the minority businesses fueling the economy are neighborhood businesses or lifestyle entrepreneurs, as they are also known.
85% of African American companies will never even reach $1 million in annual revenue.
98% will never reach $10 million in annual sales.
Only 1 in 25 will survive for ten years.
I believe the biggest reason for these statistics is that as Black business owners we rely on our natural born skills and knowledge of our business and we don´t seek outside counsel. I call it the Lone Ranger Syndrome… where we do it all.
The Lone Ranger effect needs to be addressed in the African-American business community. However, there is hope. Black Enterprise Magazine offers an annual list of the top 25 Black owned businesses and at the top are companies that do billions and hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
This didn´t happen by accident. These companies have a strong team who surrounded themselves with top quality consultants and strategists and they also employed out of the box thinking to get where they are.
Like many of us, fear of rejection stops first time entrepreneurs from finding mentors and coaches. The way I see it is that if Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods had coaches and they were the best in their field it´s important for me to have a coach. A team of advisors can help Black entrepreneurs reach important and influential contacts and build stronger business connections.
Back to thinking out of the box. I recently spoke for 30 minutes to a guy who was worth $3.5 billion dollars. Yeah, that billions with a ´B´. What I learned is that to get to that level you can´t do what everyone else is doing.
I´ve been blessed to meet a few pioneers in business like Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, author of Live Like You´re Blessed and Lawrence Walker who´s raising almost a million dollars to finish production on his film documentary, book, and DVD about Slavery and The Underground Railroad and Tom Graneau who wrote Are You Financially Checkmate?
The opportunities in the marketplace for African American entrepreneurs is tremendous yet we have to take advantage of the help that´s available to us.
Resources like www.howtodoublesales.com trains on how to go from zero to $100 million by developing the skills of someone who runs a multi million dollar company.
By hanging out with like minded business owners and leaders in our community we can continue to build a strong economic force for the future.
Robert Smith is a leading entrepreneur, speaker, and author of Million Dollar Press Releases and he can be reached at www.myprbook.com.
It should come as no surprise than that the purchasing power of African Americans is $600 billion per year.
Many of the minority businesses fueling the economy are neighborhood businesses or lifestyle entrepreneurs, as they are also known.
85% of African American companies will never even reach $1 million in annual revenue.
98% will never reach $10 million in annual sales.
Only 1 in 25 will survive for ten years.
I believe the biggest reason for these statistics is that as Black business owners we rely on our natural born skills and knowledge of our business and we don´t seek outside counsel. I call it the Lone Ranger Syndrome… where we do it all.
The Lone Ranger effect needs to be addressed in the African-American business community. However, there is hope. Black Enterprise Magazine offers an annual list of the top 25 Black owned businesses and at the top are companies that do billions and hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
This didn´t happen by accident. These companies have a strong team who surrounded themselves with top quality consultants and strategists and they also employed out of the box thinking to get where they are.
Like many of us, fear of rejection stops first time entrepreneurs from finding mentors and coaches. The way I see it is that if Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods had coaches and they were the best in their field it´s important for me to have a coach. A team of advisors can help Black entrepreneurs reach important and influential contacts and build stronger business connections.
Back to thinking out of the box. I recently spoke for 30 minutes to a guy who was worth $3.5 billion dollars. Yeah, that billions with a ´B´. What I learned is that to get to that level you can´t do what everyone else is doing.
I´ve been blessed to meet a few pioneers in business like Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, author of Live Like You´re Blessed and Lawrence Walker who´s raising almost a million dollars to finish production on his film documentary, book, and DVD about Slavery and The Underground Railroad and Tom Graneau who wrote Are You Financially Checkmate?
The opportunities in the marketplace for African American entrepreneurs is tremendous yet we have to take advantage of the help that´s available to us.
Resources like www.howtodoublesales.com trains on how to go from zero to $100 million by developing the skills of someone who runs a multi million dollar company.
By hanging out with like minded business owners and leaders in our community we can continue to build a strong economic force for the future.
Robert Smith is a leading entrepreneur, speaker, and author of Million Dollar Press Releases and he can be reached at www.myprbook.com.
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