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Potential
to Double Black Entrepreneurship
"From the President on
down, we as a society should make sure we do not recreate
poverty-stricken neighborhoods"
A Report from BlackMoney.com
John William Templeton, Editor SAN FRANCISCO -- The author of the annual
State of Black Business reports calculates that the 70,000 black
businesses in Louisiana, MIssissippi and Alabama could be almost
doubled if a wise and equitable economic development strategy is
employed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Louisiana and
Mississippi are the two states with the largest proportion of
African-American residents, notes John WIlliam Templeton, editor
of BlackMoney.com.
Alabama has the seventh largest ratio of
black citizens.
A Hurricane Katrina recovery appendix has
been added to Unfinished Dream: State of Black Business,
Second Edition with an industry by industry analysis of the
potential growth of black businesses which can occur in the
impacted region.
"The economic boom enabled by the civil
rights movement that opened the South to international
trade and technology has largely passed African-American firms
by," notes Templeton. "A significant
proportion of the black labor force has moved into managerial
and professional jobs which prepare them to go into
business."
An analysis of the disparity between black
employment by industry and black self-employment, which is 4.1
percent on average nationally, indicates that there could be
another 66,000 firms in those states with the right economic
incentives.
"The pictures we saw at the Superdome
reflect communities without the business base to provide such
amenities as hotel rooms, taxicabs, tour buses which would have
been available in the emergency and the job base to quell
hyperpoverty," said Templeton.
The first industry sector to focus on should
be construction.
In recognition of the national observance of
Minority Enterprise Development Week through Wednesday, he urged
Congress to add provisions to the two already-passed disaster
relief bills totalling $62 billion to insure that small
businesses based in and employing persons from the disaster
zone, particularly from census tracts with high unemployment
even before the hurricane, do much of the reconstruction work.
"It doesn't make sense to ship people
across the country while trained workers and entrepreneurs sit
in shelters looking for work," he added. The scale of the
job ahead could spawn another 5,000 black contractors in those
states.
Current policy puts the onus on individuals
to come to various agencies for limited assistance. A
more effective approach would be to identify talent in impacted
communities, particularly experienced managers, provide the
support to get firms off the ground and match them with larger
companies such as the mentor-protege program currently used by
the Department of Defense.
Other industry sectors which could
immediately handle new entrepreneurs include the food and
hospitality sector, where black self-employment was less than
half the national average, particularly in tourism rich areas
like New Orleans and the Mississippi gambling coast. Templeton
participates in a campaign to promote black restaurants in San
Francisco that has sparked six new restaurants in the past
quarter to join more than 50 eateries employing more than
500 persons.
"We don't want to send people back to
hollowed-out communities filled with liquor stores and check
cashing joints like they lived in before," he
said. "Part of the vitality of the Black Belt is the
cuisine and it should be reflected in new and revived
restaurants that serve the communities." Food
service entrepreneurs can get a start by gaining contracts to
feed the disaster relief workers as the recovery begins.
Other sectors include repair businesses,
personal services firms, light manufacturing, technology
services and retailing.
"Policymakers should not assume that the
free market will take care of the issues, because the redlining
that had already flooded those neighborhoods with poverty puts
potential entrepreneurs at a distinct disadvantage," said
Templeton. "From the President on down, we as a
society should make sure we do not recreate poverty-stricken
neighborhoods as we have for the past 60 years through
government policies."
A task force of top officials and legislators
should be specifically tasked with the economic revitalization
of the black communities of the Deep South. "Otherwise,
the tendency will be to continue to ignore their plight,"
said Templeton.
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posted 14 September 2005 |