Black Business Prospects Look Good For 2007
But smart entrepreneurs will avoid the obvious pitfalls.
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder:
Minnesota’s Black population has grown dramatically over the last decade, as have Black-owned businesses, says a recent government report.
In their Community Dividend publication, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis reported that Blacks are leading the latest wave of small business growth in Minnesota. The 2002 U.S. Economic Census reported that Black-owned firms in Minnesota rose from 4,024 in 1997 to 7,837 in 2002, which coincided with a boom in the Black population.
It also pointed out that the Black population in Minnesota almost doubled from 94,944 in 1990 to 179,957 in 2000, and that the number of Black Minnesotans will reach 259,600 by 2010.
The U.S. Small Business Administration defines small businesses as those firms that employ fewer than 500 employees.
According to Minnesota Black Chamber of Commerce President Barbara Davis, most Black businesses are small businesses. ‘The majority of businesses owned by persons of African decent are 1- or 2-person businesses,’ she points out. ‘A lot of people have ‘micro-businesses’ [such as] artists who do arts and crafts and man booths at art fairs and parks; people who have little barber and beauty shops and operate out of their homes; people who have little alterations and sewing shops right in their homes.’
Davis agrees that Black-owned businesses are increasing, ‘but we don’t get the statistics of how many of them survive,’ she points out.
Grover Jones of the Northside Residents Redevelopment Council (NRRC), an organization that promotes Black entrepreneurship, says this is especially true on the city’s North Side. ‘There are a few businesses that are prospering,’ he notes, ‘but when you look at the whole, I think it is vastly below the norm when you look at other immigrants that are coming into the country.’
Davis, Jones, and other community members noted several key factors that affect the survival rate of Black businesses: business know-how, financing, choosing the right business venture, community support, and getting good advice. More.
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