I think it’s time to have a real look at Black Business.  Why? Because we are constantly beat over the head with people saying that we need to start more business in order to get out of the situation that we are in.  But no one ever goes into much more detail than saying black people need to start more businesses.  So I say, let’s take a look at the numbers involved.

 From 2002 to 2007 the amount of registered black businesses increased 60.5% to 1.9 million which is triple the national rate of 18%.  Black business increased sales to $137.5 Billion, and black owed business continued and continues to be the fastest growing business demographic in the nation.  While we wait for August of 2015 to get new reports (a schedule of release can be seen by clicking here) I am more than positive that the official reports will show a continuing trend upwards in these numbers.  But the question remains how has all of this translated into increased prosperity for Black America?

   The simple answer is: it hasn’t!

 Blacks have consistently had between 25% and 30% of its population living in poverty over the past 30 years and as of 2009 that number stood at 25.8% and in 2012 that number had gone up to 28.1 percent.  With the average number of people in a black family at about 3 from the last numbers available in 2000 the matching poverty line for that family is about $20k and for a family of 4 its $24k.  That means that 40% of black people making under $25K I’d say, “Houston, we have a problem.”  All of this is going on with black business start-ups booming.

 So let’s look at the black business demographics a little deeper.  If it’s true that the chief hirer of a group of people are other members in that group then let’s look at how many black businesses employ other people.  Of the 1.9 million black owned business, only 107 thousand actually hire other people.  Compare that to the Asians that have 1.6 million businesses but hire 400 thousand people and do $514 billion in business.   The story that this tells is one that we already know all too well, community impact comes not from establishing a business, but from employing people in that community to work for your business and produce for the community around your business.

 Which brings us to another point, the major area of impact by a business is normally in the community surrounding that business.   Most businesses and employees seek to keep cost down which primarily means reducing transportation cost, hence a business will do what it can to do business in its local community.  In most black communities a large portion of the businesses are not owned by black people.  The fact that most black owned businesses don’t hire anyone is only worsened by the fact that they don’t exist in black neighborhoods or in proximity to each other.  This means that those that do hire are probably not hiring black workers and those that are in business are probably not supporting other black businesses. 

 Without dragging this out to far because I think we can all see where I am going.  We don’t need more black businesses, we need more support for black businesses.  I’m not talking about black people finding a black business and supporting it, I’m talking about educating black business owners on the impact of group location and complementary organization and placement.  I’m talking about networking and commanding a space in the black market first and foremost by positioning yourself close to the market and letting people know you are there.  I’m talking about black business supporting black business because the major impact in business is in the hiring of people and the supporting of other businesses.  Yes we need black people to buy black, but we need educated pro black business owners that are properly trained and know how to make their presence felt and to properly utilize their profits and stature.  We need more black businesses that care unapologetically about black people, not just more black businesses.

http://diversitydata-archive.org/Data/Rankings/Show.aspx?ind=88&ch=4&tf=1&sortby=Value&sortChs=4&sort=HighToLow&rgn=ShowAll&notes=True&rt=MetroArea
https://www.census.gov/econ/sbo/releaseschedule12.html
https://www.census.gov/econ/sbo/
https://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/income_expenditures_poverty_wealth/household_income.html