African American golf magazine defies tradition - Special supplement: golf & tennis challenge - African American Golfers Digest

Black Enterprise, Sept, 2003 by Maya R. Payne

Black-owned businesses at all levels are rebuilding their organizations to meet the demands of an increasingly turbulent economic landscape. While many BE 100 companies are overhauling their businesses to thrive amid market difficulties, one small business owner is using golf to bolster her core operation and to position herself as a knowledge leader in an untapped market.

Cook's vision, diligence, and managerial dexterity are paying off in dollars and partnerships.

Debert Coletta Cook, a certified meeting professional (CMP) and owner of New York City's Event Planners Plus!, launched African American Golfers Digest in March 2003 to augment her practice.

"The publication's mission is to reach out to a broad spectrum of golfers who are African American and [to] provide them with news, tips, information, and activities," Cook says. With articles such as "Finding Your Stroke in the Motherland" and information on black golf organizations, events, and tournaments, African American Golfer's Digest offers valuable information to a growing golf demographic.

"Businesses across the board have to develop additional lines of expertise to remain competitive in tough times," says Cook. Within event planning, she says she has observed businesses expanding to include public relations, e-marketing, and even decorating services. Establishing African American Golfers Digest was prompted by a growing number of golf invitations and inquiries Cook received over the last year.

After being inundated with requests to participate in golf outings and tournaments, she realized that golf was a powerful networking tool for her corporate clients and beneficial to her own professional development. "Through the National Coalition of Black Meeting Planners, I saw golf become trendy about 10 years ago among national black professional organizations. They had begun incorporating the game into annual meetings and other occasions."

Today Cook finds that golf's appeal has trickled down to the grassroots level. "Clients who don't even play golf are coming to me inquiring about golf events," says Cook, who expects golf fundraisers and golf day trips to figure prominently in her

While considering taking up the game and producing golf events, Cook stumbled upon another golf-related means of boosting business: She founded an African American golf publication and transformed her personal quest for golf information into a full-fledged entrepreneurial venture.

Today, African American Golfers Digest is distributed nationally to 20,000 individuals at black golf events, executive business events, and through subscription. "To clubs and tournaments, we offer media support through editorial and photo coverage," Cook says. In the next two years, she hopes to increase the circulation by 150% and to make the digest available through retail outlets.

But it hasn't been an easy journey from the publication's conception to its launch. Because her office was located a half-mile from Ground Zero, Cook experienced the impact of Sept. 11 firsthand. "I was displaced and had to work out of my home for eight weeks," she says. Long after returning to the lower Manhattan office of Event Planners Plus! the affects of the terrorist attacks were felt in the form of a dramatically altered skyline, a depressed public mood, and a recession.

Cook employed ingenuity in bridging the divide between her dream of a successful magazine launch and the reality of turbulent market conditions, tighter advertising budgets, and higher paper costs. "I used a lot of creativity," she says. "I kept my overhead low by building the magazine using my existing office and resources."

Much of the work for the publication was outsourced to freelance writers, editors, and photographers. "I found folks by posting on the online message board at Columbia University's School of Journalism. [I was able to] obtain the free services of students who were looking for bylines," she says. She even bartered with a designer to obtain the digest's layout.

Managing magazine production is no easy task. Cook's previous business experience gave her the confidence to pursue her endeavor. Born into a family of entrepreneurs that include hair dressers, landscapers, and funeral home directors, Cook has founded numerous businesses since childhood, ranging from a business card exchange newsletter to a photography studio. Her largest undertaking to date has been Event Planners Plus! which she founded in 1998. Her first contract was planning a financial conference for New York gubernatorial candidate H. Carl McCall.

Cook's vision, diligence, and managerial dexterity are paying off in advertising dollars and new distribution partnerships. African American golfers are "an overlooked segment and people are really responding to our product," says Cook. She now counts golf instructors, personal care producers, exercise gurus, course managers, and weekend golf resorts among the digest's advertisers. From a business perspective, these manufacturers of goods and services recognize the growing clout of African American golfers and are eager to win black dollars.