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Building up black businesses

Learn how to do well, then go out and make it happen, panelists tell a group of businesspeople at a seminar in Tampa.

By JAMES THORNER
Published May 17, 2006

Lack of education, capital and connections. These are the three deficiencies blocking much of the black community from joining the business mainstream.

That message from a black-oriented business expo in Tampa on Wednesday wasn’t meant as a prelude to surrender, but as a call to excellence.

“We’re not doing well because we don’t know how to do well,” said Richard Hollins, president of Tampa’s Aurora Financial Services on Kennedy Boulevard.

The presentation, sponsored by the Urban Florida League of Business, was called “The Status of Black Business in Tampa Bay.” The thrust was that black companies weren’t grabbing their share of the business boom epitomized by construction cranes hovering over Tampa and St. Petersburg.

“Everything’s being developed for us, not with us,” said Chloe Coney, president of the Tampa nonprofit Corporation to Develop Communities.

While short of concrete answers, panelists at the Doubletree Hotel in the Westshore business district were generous with broad brush strokes.

A large high school dropout rate leaves black children with ninth grade educations and too little “behind the ears” to build successful businesses, said former Florida A&M University president Walter L. Smith.

Black ownership is scarce even among dirt-under-the fingernails professions. Larry Newsome, whose company, Urban Development Solutions, helped revive the economically challenged area of St. Petersburg known as Midtown with a new Sweetbay supermarket, said contractor set-asides for black people often go begging.

He recalled a major hospital’s desire to hire 20 percent minority contractors for a multi-million-dollar renovation. So few contractors emerged, the hospital was lucky to fill 2 percent of its jobs with minorities.

 “We’re getting cut off at the knees,” said Newsome, whose success at neighborhood revitalization has made him a sought after business partner.

Consultant Joli Cooper of Cooper Nelson and Associates pleaded against passivity, urging the audience of about 70 to be aggressive in seeking mentoring and customers.

“You can’t sit there, regardless of your business, and expect customers to come to you,” she said.

The Urban Florida League of Business takes its cue from the ideals of Booker T. Washington, who preached black self-reliance during the days of racial segregation.

Coney urged the audience to “buy black,” saying “other nationalities do that.” But most panelists emphasized greater integration with the wider and whiter business world.

The only color most business people recognize is green, said Hollins, the financial services president.
But to triumph in business, you can’t skimp on educating yourself and building capital.

“You can’t compete without these two,” Hollins said. “Everything else is going to be in vain.”

James Thorner can be reached at thorner@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3313.

[Last modified May 17, 2006, 21:22:09]