African American owned businesses face unique obstacles to success in our country. Many times, business people and other leaders in government will tell us how we should handle our differences in a business-to-business scenario. Yet, the civil rights of African Americans are routinely trampled on by many business owners who don't practice equality in their business practices. How can these African American owned businesses prosper in our country?
The answer is simple; not a whole lot! The first step to success is to identify the barriers that you face in your journey to entrepreneurship. Most times, the barriers are social, political, or psychological in nature. In other words, if you want to succeed in small businesses, you will have to do everything in your power to gain the respect of those who are going to be customers of yours and customers of other minority businesses.
You can start by looking at your own personal business history. What do you see as the major obstacle to your entrepreneurial success? What kind of public issues are you currently fighting? Is there something major that you feel could stand in the way of you achieving your goals of being financially secure and successful?
In other words, what are the things that your current civil rights are being challenged by?
For instance, in the early 20th century, there was very little discrimination of African American owned businesses in any significant way. It took until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s for any major companies to hire ANY black person to run their business. Today, if you Google the names of any two names, like Robert E. Brown and Richard G. Kiger, you will find the websites for both men. However, you will also find websites for companies like AT&T and GEICO, which would seem to indicate that they are more careful with their minorities, giving them some more creditability. And that is a good thing because no one wants to run a business that discriminates.
In addition to that, it is important to note the number of black businesses that go out of business in recent years. While the reasons may differ from large corporations down to small Mom and Pop operations, black-owned businesses have suffered more economic hardships. That's not meant to degrade small African-American businesses, it is simply a reality. Additionally, the number of black-owned businesses is much lower than it was just fifty years ago due to the number of more black people moving to major cities like Chicago and Houston, allowing more black-owned businesses the opportunity to thrive. The economic climate is better today than it has ever been.
So the issue is, why are more African-Americans moving to these major cities? Many economists say it's because the real estate market is recovering, enabling black families to buy more houses, apartments, and condos than before. The more affluent neighborhoods are also attracting more affluent people, creating a greater need for businesses in these urban areas. As more people move to these urban areas with higher incomes, more black population will also move into those areas, creating a greater demand for African-American owned businesses. This demand is only going to continue as long as there is an available population of black people in the cities. As such, we can expect this trend to become increasingly stronger as time goes on.
To get more information about this, visit: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/03/success/consumers-support-black-owned-small-businesses/index.html.
