Can Black Business Survive without Black Folk spending money with it?

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Destee

Sure. I'm assuming though that you're referring to Black Business as "Black-owned" business and not necessarily to a business that provide good, services and products that caters to predominantly African Americans.

A lot of times it does seem that Black businesses really goes all out to advertise that their business is "Black" owned hoping that we as consumers would automatically patronize it, without regards to the quality of services and goods offered, instead of advertising their business based on the quality of goods and services offered. It is true that we will sometimes seek "Black-owned" businesses in particular for some services, but I wonder sometimes if advertising their business as "Black-owned" is damaging in some regards.

It will be interesting to hear other's comments on this thread...

Good Question

ZeroGravity ... you bring an interesting slant to this discussion, one I've thought on since creating my first web site. In the beginning I was adamantly opposed to having my site actually say "Black or African American," but I wanted folk to know that it was a "Black Owned Business." I wanted people to know I was black because oftentimes, an experience can be much more rewarding if the person you are working with can understand and appreciate you fully. I had a sincere desire to help other African Americans take full advantage of this new technology. Anyway, I wanted folk to know I was black, but was very reluctant to say "black, african american, etc." So I put my picture on my site. :) I figured that would do it and folk would know and I wouldn't have to say "black, african american."

Now that years have passed, I think it was a mistake.

With the Internet and the fierce competition for high search engine rankings (most new visits to a site come from the major search engines), keywords, such as "black and african american," are important to the success of a site that is catering to this market. When a person does a search looking for a discussion forum, specifically an African American discussion forum (http://www.google.com/search?q=african+american+discussion+forum&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=30&sa=N), (we're on the 4th page of results) or a black poetry forum (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=black+poetry+forum), (we're on the first page of results) ... it can only help a web site if these words can be found on their site. Had I known how important it was during the early years, I would have done differently.

It has not been many years that black folk had a bountiful choice of other black folk to do business with. I've found that many black folk prefer doing business and interacting with other black folk. It goes without saying, in my opinion, that quality must be present ... being Black is not enough. No one, black or white, is willing to spend their money on less than quality products or services, and they shouldn't.

It is a two-edged sword (but then, for black folk, most everything in America is or has been). You can easily alienate non-black folk, if you embrace your blackness too tightly and you can do the same to some black folk because they think you're trying too hard. The African American (online) community and their money is vital to the economy. So much so that white corporate America has donned himself as "black" and set up sites with black and African American written all over them, in an effort to get your attention (and they're quite successful at it). Not that what they do is a direct reflection of what should be done ... but it is certainly interesting and probably profitable for them.

I have been easing more and more into saying "black and african american" and I recommend that anyone with a web site catering to this group of folk, do the same.

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Destee

It is a two-edged sword...that's for sure. I'm still on the fence though as to whether the ethnicity of the owner is pertinent. I've been in heavy discussion about this topic in the past, especially website businesses. For some the site has to be black-owned to be validated, it can't be owned by whites, yet managed my blacks (as in blackvoice.com).

It seems that MLK's "...content of my character, not the color of my skin..." quote is only that....a quote. In America, it appears that the color of one's skin is STILL the catalyst in which something measured, and in saying that, I have to agree somewhat with you that you almost haveto identify your business as "black and african american".

My favorite business model is the "Nich Market" model. And an excellent example of this is the Star Trek market. Now not everyone is into Star Trek, yet there are enough people who are to spawn a rather huge market that existed before the internet and was enhance greatly when the internet came into our lives. The Star Trek market does not rely upon non-Star Trek fans to make their money. Therefore everone who hates Star Trek or knows nothing about Star Trek or ignores Star Trek are not where this market makes its money. It does not have to appeal to those who are not into it in order to be successful.

The internet is a major ground for the Nch Market. And today we no longer have to worry about crossing over to a broad market in order to succeed. Therefoer identifying yourself as "Black" becomes a non-issue - because in todays market you can compete if you were green midget. The target will be other green midgets. With a community ranging in the hundreds of millions, lets say only 2% were green midgets. Well 2% of a market of hundreds of millions is enough potential capital to give that green midget one hell of an income. And he did not have to appeal to non-green midgets.

While examples like green midgets and Star Trek (yeah, it does sound like an episode of Star Trek) are pretty wild examples, it does show that the old way of seeing business success has been changed forever. The skinheads make millions on their sites and they only appeal the other skin heads. African-Americas are in that exact same position. And this is not unique to us at all.

It take s some patients and a little time, but success is there for anyone. Its just the way you look at it.

Just a Future Thought

FutureIdeas ... Welcome and Thanks For Joining Us ... :wave:

I do agree with what you've said regarding niche markets. Oftentimes efforts can be much more successful if focusing on a small group vs "everyone." The Internet has certainly made it possible for us to do that. Of course I love it! :)

Again, thanks for joining us and please make yourself at home.

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Destee

I say yes as a Black owned business man my self
it's hard work and strong backing to stay afloat
yes if we continue to help each other
and no i've seen many fall fast due to lack of support !

Sure If that business stops referring to itself as a black business and just become a business. For many years now I've stop thinking of myself as being a member of the black race or any race other than the human race. It let's me be broarder in my outlook and it definitely not a self limiting.

JJREC WELCOME AND THANKZ U ARE CORRECT AND ON POINT
WELCOME TO DESTEE PLACE ENJOY , STAY ROUND TO SHARE
MORE OF YA THOUGHTS AND WISDOM UPON US ....WELCOME !!

Black Business can and will survive as long as businessowners do not try to run eachother out of business. Work together within the business and stop competing against eachother everything will be fine.
All for the best.

I think Black business would thrive more if we came together like our asian counter parts. You go into a black neighborhood and all you see is asian businesses and one or 2 Black businesses if you are lucky! I have worked for both black business and others so I have see the difference in how things are done and the difference how customers treat black owned business.

if we don't support the business it will not stand long
not about going up against each other but about staying
in business if our people don't shop or support it how can it
survive truefully no we can't survive our people don't back
us enough.
facts ....................

If the product is what customers want, and it is at a competitive price....then people will buy it. This is the basic formula for business sucess and it applies to all people regardless of color. If black businesses follow this formula then most likely they will be profitable.

so true Pan ...I've seen it all at first hand and watch how our people
shy away to others and leave there own kind struggling, man i could
tell a story on how so many of us work when it come to supporting a
black business .

I work as an entrepreneur in two career paths; a real estate appraiser, and I.T. consultant.

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but in my experience, blacks are much more money sensitive than whites. My black clients tend to focus more onthe short money, and not the long money. There is a huge difference. MAny times this becomes such a significant obstacle, that I simply have to back away from providing quality services to them. Especially when it comes to I.T. Consulting.

Although I get much more personal satisfaction working with my people it is generally harder because of the money issue.

To answer your question of the thread, YES, black business can and will survive.
We just have to continue to learn how business is done. That takes time, practive, and dilligence. Afterall, don't we eventually conquer all that we strive to do?

true but in order to survive we as blacks need to support the cause of our
people and their business wouldn't you think ?

In 1999, my wife and I was volunteering in our community assisting new businesses with web sites. Some of the blacks were petrified to put their photos on their web sites. Wht's interesting is that they knew nothing about the technology, very little about the Internet-- but they **** sure knew how people would treat their web site as a result of a their "face" being slapped on the home page. Tragic. I had one lady ask me did we have a photo of a white girl because she believed that a white woman photo would increase her viewers and purchasers. And this lady was selling black clothing !!
Frankly, I'm just disgusted.

I believe so, Destee. But it goes beyond black interest and consumption for black businesses to have mainstream success w/o selling out.

The internet is a major ground for the Nch Market. And today we no longer have to worry about crossing over to a broad market in order to succeed. Therefoer identifying yourself as "Black" becomes a non-issue - because in todays market you can compete if you were green midget. The target will be other green midgets. With a community ranging in the hundreds of millions, lets say only 2% were green midgets. Well 2% of a market of hundreds of millions is enough potential capital to give that green midget one hell of an income. And he did not have to appeal to non-green midgets.

Well said. And you can take this to a deeper level. My niche market has been African American since 99. But I now have developed niche within niches. For example I now have a site for just African American Hair Salons, just attornies , etc.

I have niches outside color, a site all about guitars, another about gardening, etc. but not just gardneing, gardeners with no time. ' weekend gardners' http://www.weekendgarden.com

How Black star trek fans? But at some level it becomes more effort than income.

kelvin

Sure If that business stops referring to itself as a black business and just become a business. For many years now I've stop thinking of myself as being a member of the black race or any race other than the human race. It let's me be broarder in my outlook and it definitely not a self limiting.


I have had many of the same problems as other. I started earlier to identify my self as Black. Like Destee, My picture has been associated with many of my sites from the beginning.

In the beginning, many people hid themselves behind the net, not wanting people to know they were, young, old, black , white, male , female, not from US, from the US, etc.

It soom became apparent that people still wanted to identifiy with whom they spent their money. So adding pictures, did not make my site a Black site, it made my site personable, it made me seem real to the potential visitors. This was before I started my actuall black sites.

I was online early, what happened was I became recognized as an early net adopter, so other would call or email me to ask opinions, how to's, or for Black resources.

That is when I started building my first Black directory.

Later, I began to play both sides of the fence when I began selling hosting.

I have 2 sites selling the same item, but one sell Black web hosting, the other just webhosting.

I want all the money. Black , white, asian, etc.

So, be Black, find your niche.
Be Black, and personable.
Be female and warm
Be female and beautiful

Going back to Star Trek, just, 'make it so'.

kelvin

Depending on who you talk to, you'll get different answers to this question. I'm learning how to deal with the debt of my youth, and I'll say with what I've learned, if you can stay out of debt, and adhere to established business practices (good accounting, etc...) then a black business can survive, in almost any climate. This is just my opinion.