The state of small black business - includes related article on small business financial assistance

Black Enterprise, Nov, 1997 by Wendy M. Beech

Terry says this proposition gave his company the additional strength it needed to become the first minority-owned firm to receive a direct Olympic license for the Summer Games. The agreement also opened up opportunities for other licensing agreements, including a sublicense for woven apparel for Champion Products, which is owned by the Sara Lee Corporation.

Today, Terry's consumer-oriented licensed apparel accounts for 20% of his total revenue.

RIDE THE TECHNOLOGY WAVE

Savvy black-owned businesses realize that in order to do business in the 21st century they must ride the technology wave. "Capital alone isn't enough to operate a successful business," says Michael Fields, president of the Fields Group, a management consulting firm in Pleasanton, California. "You have to have great leadership and the appropriate market but, most importantly, in this decade and going into the future, you need to have technology."

When Fields started out in 1992, he developed an acquisition strategy in which he procured small corporations specializing in computer software. Of course, not every start-up can assume this type of strategy as a way to implement technology into its operation, but Fields says minority business owners can start by simply learning the dynamics of the World Wide Web.

A recent study by the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation's largest small business advocacy group representing over 600,000 small enterprises, indicates that while 77% of small businesses report having computers, only about 40% of those firms are online.

Utilizing technology successfully will allow black businesses to service customers more effectively, increase their research capabilities (e.g., access information about competitors) and provide immediate information specific to their industries. It can also expand their market and competitive reach, as well as improve their overall business process.

MBDA's Webber says corporate suppliers, in particular, must become computer savvy. "Because not only are federal sector purchasers moving everything into the electronic arena, but so are the private sector companies. So if you're going to be a supplier for Walt Disney, MCI or any of these other Fortune 1,000 corporations, you're going to have to be linked into their purchasing system so that you can communicate purchase orders and invoice them electronically," he says. "Using technology is not something people are going to have a choice about in the future."

TREADING FOREIGN TERRITORY: THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE

The global marketplace is ripe with opportunities for small black businesses, but fear of the unknown is keeping some African American entrepreneurs at bay. "The misconception is that only the large Fortune 500 companies need to think about global issues," says Kathryn D. Leary, president and CEO of the Leary Group Inc. an international marketing and trade company in West New York, New Jersey. "But it's important that black entrepreneurs realize the possibilities that exist for us in the international arena," she says.