Madame Noire | Black Women's Lifestyle Guide | Black Hair | Black Love

by Rhonda Campbell

You might be tempted to quit your day job since images of you owning and managing an enterprise popped into your head. After you start your own business gone will be the days of your having to ask someone else if you can take a day off to run errands or vacation with your family. The start and end of your work day will be totally up to you.

Slowly Taking Full Ownership of a Company

It sounds inviting, full of endless rewards. But have you asked yourself where you’re going to get the capital to start your business? And what about property, home-based business, worker’s compensation, professional, product or general liability insurance – have you thought about the types and amounts of insurance your business may need?

While you’re researching and getting answers to these and other business questions (e.g. self-employment taxes, payroll taxes) consider staying at your current job and easing into full-time business ownership. Doing so doesn’t mean you’re putting off starting your business. After all, you can use the time to learn more about the industry you’re going to start a new business in. For example, if you plan to open a boutique you can learn about credit card processing fees, youth employment work hours in the state your boutique will operate in and malls that rent booth space at discounted rates.

Benefits You Gain By Pacing Your Business Ownership

Furthermore, by easing into business ownership you can reap even more benefits. Some of these benefits may save you hundreds or thousands of dollars. To start you can:

• Learn firsthand how to create multiple streams of income to avoid the pressure of feeling like all you income must come from one source
• Attend employer funded business-related training seminars to learn and grow
• Grab public speaking opportunities offered by your employer (use these skills to land paying public speaking opportunities after you start your company)
• Take team building, supervisory and project management roles employers offer you so you can grow your business skills and abilities
• Brush off naïve thinking and start to look clearly at what it’s going to take to succeed in business
• Find out how committed you truly are to run and grow a business

Preparing to Succeed as a Business Owner

One of the first things you may discover after you start your own business is that sales come in cycles. It doesn’t matter if you work as a freelance writer, open a restaurant, work as a hair stylist or start a life coaching business. There will be peaks and valleys, cycles, in your business. All the marketing in the world likely won’t change this. Every business owner experiences it.

If you have sufficient capital you can keep your business operating through slow sales periods. A portion of this capital can come from the part-time or full-time job you’re working. In fact, as you build reserves of capital for your business you can shift from full-time to part-time work so you can focus more on your business until sales grow to the point where the business can fully support your personal financial obligations. It’ll take stress off you. It may also allow you to give your personal best to your business during the start-up phase.

Rhonda Campbell, an East Coast journalist, is the owner of Off The Shelf radio and publisher of Long Walk Up and the forthcoming Love Pour Over Me.

Black women have battled the brick wall that blocks the glass ceiling for decades. But the climb up the corporate ladder to the C-suite, that suite belonging to a companies Chief Executive Officer, has been conquered by several notable African American women. Women like Ursala Burns and Oprah Winfrey make success look achievable and have certainly made leading major corporations a sistah thang.  Here’s our list of top ten black female CEOs:

Ursala Burns

Ursala Burns became the black superwoman of corporate America when she was appointed the first African American CEO of a fortune 500 company, Xerox, in 2009. Since then she has catapulted her profile with savvy business moves like leading the company’s biggest transaction to date: a $6.4 billion acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services, a business-process outsourcing company. With that move, Burns showed her plans to expand Xerox beyond the technology its known for. As head of the corporate giant, Burns commands not only a $4.1 million salary, she also earned the coveted title of one of the world’s most powerful women according to Forbes Magazine.

Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. For months now politicians have been encouraging shoppers to support independent store owners within their communities. We say why not show the sistahs some love. Black women have boutiques, wine stores, and a myriad of ways to help shoppers looking for a unique experience find exactly what they’re looking for. Here’s a list of some black women, with boutique businesses worth supporting:

Ooh La La Fashion boutique in Atlanta is owned and operated by fashionista Ronni McBride.  The African American proprietor’s store promotes many Italian designs and showcases lines that are mostly European influenced.  The store features innovative designers from around the world as well as talented locals. In addition offering fashion forward clothing, the boutique offers a range of unique and even custom made accessories including precious stone jewelry, purses, shoes, and hats.

Meet Zane:  A pioneer in the book publishing industry and the New York Times bestselling author of Afterburn, The Heat Seekers and Dear G-Spot. Zane is a business leader who stays abreast of what’s going on in her company at all levels.  The publication of her early books – The Sex Chronicles, Addicted and Shame on It All took her from a corporate sales job right into the heart of erotica.  Not only has Zane made the bestseller list, her television series, Zane’s Sex Chronicles ran on Cinemax for three seasons.  Working on the series gave Zane the chance to partner with Suzanne DePasse, a Motown exec who helped groom Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5.  Read on to learn more about Zane, a top selling author, Strebor Books publisher, mother and forward-thinking business woman.

MN:  Before you started writing erotica, you worked as a sales representative. What caused you to make the switch from sales to writing erotic novels, and did you think there was a market for sexually explicit books when you started writing?

Zane:  Ironically, I never chose to become a writer, even less a writer of erotica. I had heard the term erotica, but I hadn’t read erotica at the time. The thing about me is that I am a very detailed writer when it comes to every aspect of writing so I am equally as detailed when it comes to the sexual content. My books are more about the characters and storyline and, in my mind, have very little to do with sex. However, people labeled me that and the rest is history.

As for thinking there was a market for sexually explicit books, I had no idea. I did know that there was a market for mine because I literally gave away my work for three years for free on the Internet, with no intention of ever becoming a published author. When a rumor got started that I had a book out, I did some test marketing to find out if people would purchase my work. Then and only then did I decide to go for it and take a shot.

MN: You self-published your first three novels before signing with Simon & Schuster in 2001. What was the process of self-publishing those early books like and how does the process differ from publishing a book through a mainstream publisher?

Zane:  When you self-publish, you wear all hats and perform all duties. Authors at a mainstream publisher write the book and then basically turn it over to the publisher. Some authors are go-getters and heavily participate in the marketing and promotion of their books. Unfortunately, the majority of authors think they can sit back and wait for the money to flow in.  Those are the authors who generally fail.

When it comes to creating computer programming and Internet start ups, you’re more likely to imagine a socially awkward, gangly white man with unkempt hair and thick glasses than you are a young, black woman from Howard University. But Tiffani Bell is that woman.

One of two black women featured in Black in America 4: The New Promised Land- Silicon Valley, Tiffani was one of eight African American entrepreneurs who took part in the NewME Accelerator Program. The program, which housed the eight entrepreneurs under one roof last summer, was designed to prepare and train African Americans to present and acquire funding for their online businesses.

Madame Noire caught up with Tiffani Bell recently to talk about her start in computer programming, getting along with her housemates, her business and being a role model.

How did you initially get into programming?

It was from when I was a kid, actually. I had the V Tech Pre Computer 1000 that my parents bought me back in first grade.  You could play games and stuff on it but I got tired of the games that got built in. So I was just flipping through the user manual one day and they had directions on how to program that to a computer and make your own games. I started making little simple hangman games. That was kind of my first foray into programming but I was like six, so I didn’t keep up with it. I actually wanted to grow up and be a cartoonist. Probably later, around fourth-fifth grade or so, I started building web pages. Still just tinkering. So that kind of kept up. So around tenth grade, I turned fifteen and my uncle bought me a programming book. And I ended up reading through that. It’s been off and on for a few years but I finally just kept up with it and ended up going to Howard for it. That’s kind of the start.

Did your parents know what you were doing? Many adults today don’t know anything about programming. Did they know that was actually a skill?

Not really. Not at all, really. More of just like, “what is that?” ‘Why are you on the computer so much?” Even today, they really kind of don’t know. But they know, ok, this is important, finally, it’s not just kids playing on the computer and doing absolutely nothing.

So you mentioned you went to Howard, then you graduated and had internships with IBM.  How did you make the transition from a predominately black environment to a predominately white, male environment?

That transition wasn’t that bad for me. I was a military brat so I grew up with a bunch of people around that were diverse. I’ve had white best friends, Asian best friends, black best friends. It wasn’t a stretch to say ‘oh yeah, it’s a bunch of white people now.’ I say going to Howard, from the environment that I came from before, was more of a stretch.  It was like “wait, there’s all these black folks, so you mean an HBCU is mostly black people? I’m like, ‘where’s everybody else at? Is there another campus or something?’ That transition [to IBM] wasn’t all that bad. I joke that I spent more time talking about Porsches and golf. So the end of the summer they were like, ‘you fit in just fine with us.’ I was like, ‘Yup, I know.’

How did you hear about the NewME Accelerator Program and what made you decide to take part in it?

Probably March of this year, they [Angela Benton and Wayne Sutton] e-mailed me and told me what they were doing as far as a start up house. And it turned into an incubator after that. I really didn’t pay much attention to it. I was like, ‘Well I’m at work right now.’ They didn’t have anything official at the time. Then they sent me a bunch of slides two or three weeks later with information on sponsors and housing. They were like you should be a part of it. As an example of a black woman, in technology, who’s actually technical. So from there I was like, ‘Ok, well that’s cool.’ And I left my job.

Because I had the idea for “Pencil You In.” I’d been working on it all that time but I still hadn’t gone full time with it at that point. Because I was like, ‘You’re still not at a point where you’re entirely ready to.’ Apparently, you’ll never be in a perfect spot to do something. I was like, ‘All right, this opportunity presented itself, so let’s take advantage of it.’

Tell us what the experience was like, what was it like living in a house with all those men and Angela?

Me and Angela had our own room. It was funny because it was the biggest room in the house. Plus we had our own bathrooms and separate sinks. The guys would complain a little bit. Like they’re in there in the suite. I was like, ‘You didn’t expect the founder of the program to be sleeping on the couch did you?’ That was fun. There were no conflicts, none of this whole ‘two black women can’t get along.’  We were actually good buddies in the house. I think of Wayne and Hodge as big brothers. They looked out for us and helped us with ideas.

So it wasn’t like “The Real World” house or anything.

It definitely was not at all like fighting… I mean there was… we kind of laugh because the guys had more conflict than we did, by far. It was like, ‘Who are the woman in the house? Us or them? We got along just fine. It was pretty nice.  It wasn’t like “Real World” people fighting or kicking each other’s butts in the backyard. People were there to work and of course make friends. But it was none of this goofing off or somebody’s just here to loaf and be free for the summer.

A few months ago, my mother-in-law called me raving about a new pastry shop—owned by a young, black woman. Being that I love to see my sisters in business for themselves, living their dreams, I couldn’t wait to taste the sweets. For black businesses to thrive, we have to give one another a chance. Unfortunately, my excitement came to a sudden halt when we showed up not once, not twice, but three times during business hours and no one was in the store. There were no notices, just an open sign some tumbleweeds rolling and crickets.

We gave up.

Two weeks ago, she relocated into a shopping center less than two miles from my house. I’ve driven by several times and she appears to be open. So, when celebrating my birthday last week, a piece of me wanted to give her my business. She is young, black and female. How could I not support that?

Well, I didn’t.

Instead of patronizing her store, I purchased overpriced key lime and red velvet cupcakes from another nearby pastry parlor owned by a white family. Why? I knew the product and service were reliable.

Am I saying white establishments are more reliable than black? No. I am saying I went out of my way on multiple occasions to buy black and it was a bust. I had no reason beyond melanin to chance going back to the store and leaving disappointed.

Black businesses with lackluster products and poor customer service don’t deserve black dollars any more than other-owned businesses. All companies should be held to the same standards. Black business owners shouldn’t receive a get-out-of-jail-free card on account of being black. It is important to support men and women of color in business, but we should always remember we are paying customers first. It’s your money, not “black” money.

Furthermore, black entrepreneurs who prove their abilities should have no problem reeling in black patrons. We should be eager to support the diversification of American business and uplift deserving people from our community. And, for  you and them, it won’t feel like going out of your way because you will feel like your money is appreciated.

LaShaun Williams is a Madame Noire contributor and columnist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and across several popular sites, such as HuffPost Black Voices and the Grio. For more information, visit her blog Politically Unapologetic or follow her on Twitter @itsmelashaun and Facebook.

By Alexis Garrett Stodghill

Blackinnovation.org is a site dedicated to promoting future-oriented business and career development for African-Americans. In a recent essay on the site, writer Johnathan Holifield decries the “civil rights” model most black leaders use when pushing for the creation of jobs. This trend was evident in the “poverty tour” conducted by Cornel West and Tavis Smiley, and in the job fairs promoted by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). As an addendum to these acts meant to draw attention to the 17% black unemployment rate, leaders like Rep. Maxine Waters have chastised President Obama for failing to create economic programs targeted for our community.

This type of thinking — seeing the creation of jobs as a political act generated through tactics similar to those of the Civil Rights movement — is exactly what Holifield believes is holding us back. He believes there are no rights in the New Economy, which he calls the “Innovation Economy.” Nobody is owed anything. You have to “self-select” (as Holifield puts it) to participate and then prepare yourself at the highest level possible. This means no waiting for the government or any organization to help. Abandoning the Civil Rights model in favor of self-motivated creating is the only way to prevent blacks from being left behind. Holifield explains:

Unlike the Civil Rights Movement, which secured for African Americans the rights and privileges owed to every American citizen, in the Innovation Economy, we are owed no rights or privileges to innovate — there is only the opportunity to participate through self-selection.

The Civil Rights Movement was spiritually fortified and legally girded by the confidence and expectation that America would be true to her highest governing law — the Constitution — and ensure that every citizen enjoys equally all rights and privileges owed to all Americans. [...]

Reflecting the Civil Rights Movement, if the idea had taken root that we are owed a right and privilege to innovate and connect to the Innovation Economy, then all hopes for our 21^st century prosperity would have been anchored in false confidence and misplaced expectation.

Imagine African Americans demanding rights and privileges where none exist. Imagine how much time, energy and prospects would have been wasted if we had undertaken an Innovation Economy Movement based on opportunities being owed to us when none are.

by Sakita Holley

The beauty of studying successful entrepreneurs is that you can learn what took them 30, 40 and sometimes 50 years to learn in a matter of hours. And no matter what industry you’re focused on, you can always find that common thread that links everyone together.

So even when you think business owners like Tiffani Bell, Daymond John, Jacqueline Nwobu and Damone Roberts are worlds apart in terms of experience in the game, you’ll find that they all share at least one or more of the following attributes.

1. Passionately curious
Most entrepreneurs have an insatiable appetite for information about their field and related industries because they are always searching for that tiny nuance or lingering question that could lead to their next big break.

2. Have a great team
No self-made man ever got that way on his own, which is why most successful people in business surround themselves with individuals that are often more intelligent and capable than they are. Oh, and then they delegate which is a huge reason why it seems like they are able to do it all.

3. The right to be wrong
They say that the fastest way to get to success is to experience your fair share of failures. Because if you’re not failing then that means you’re not taking any risks.

4. Laser-like vision and focus
The most revered business owners are known for sticking to their plan no matter what is happening around them. When the proverbial blinders are on, no industry change or economic volatility can deter them.

(Wall Street Journal) — Amid tougher lending standards and riskier times, a growing number of small-business borrowers are seeking federal government loan guarantees to loosen the purse strings at their local bank, according to SmartMoney’s latest Take Two profile of 50-plus entrepreneurs.  With several weeks left in the fiscal year, the Small Business Administration’s two main lending programs have already surpassed arecord-high $18 billion in guaranteed loans issued through banks and other conventional lenders, agency data show. That’s more than double the full-year total in 2009.  Depending on size, SBA loans are guaranteed for up to 85% against default.  Like many borrowers, Alan Green, a former television news photographer who is the subject of this week’s profile, was initially turned down by three banks for a loan he needed to buy an ailing Molly Maid franchise in Salt Lake City. Yet after applying for an SBA 7(a) loan, Green, 59, had a check for more than $100,000 within a matter of weeks.

Read More…

By Marc W. Polite 

The challenges of being an entrepreneur are many, especially for African-Americans. At a time when our economy is still in a weak recovery, some are opting to start their own businesses rather than looking for jobs. New entrepreneurs must realize that the business community requires its leaders to be able to grow their business, thrive, and embrace the notion of civic responsibility.

One successful black firm doing all these things is NOVAD Management Consulting. Founded in 2003, the corporation has grown to serve a wide clientele, and currently has offices in Maryland, Georgia, and New York. The CEO of the company, Davon Kelly, prides himself on steering his firm with high performance standards that exceed the needs of clients. In 2010, this level of commitment was recognized by the state of Maryland, as it named him as one of top Minority Business Enterprise owners of the year.

The Atlanta Post reached out to Davon Kelly to help us understand some of the challenges he faced in starting his business, his accomplishments after overcoming these obstacles, and the wisdom gained that every aspiring entrepreneur should seriously consider.

How did you start NOVAD Management Consulting?
I started NOVAD Management Consulting in 2003 based on my desire to grow a business and give back to the community.  I did not want my consulting firm to focus on quick fixes or short-term answers; instead, I focused on cultivating long-term relationships with my clients.  I work to understand my clients’ business and provide staff that can support and anticipate their needs.  These relationships are built based on ongoing dialogue, mutual trust and integrity.  Finally, and most importantly, I consider myself a “boots straps” businessman.  I did not have family or friends to go to for seed money, so I used money saved from previous employment and small individual investment plans as the start-up funds for NOVAD.   My personal mantra is, “slow and steady wins the race.” This philosophy has enabled my business to flourish despite the challenging economic times.

How did you grow the business?
NOVAD’s initial business came from relationships that I had developed with the CEOs of firms that I worked for as a consultant.  Instead of remaining a 1099 consultant [or independent contractor], I decided to leverage these relationships to establish capabilities for my company.  We developed a small resume by “pounding the pavement” like most other start up businesses – responding to RFPs [requests for proposals], and attending industry forums, government networking events and business leader groups.  Getting the business is always a great start.  However, the main reason our business has been able to grow is that with each new opportunity we have far exceeded the expectation of our clients, provided a viable solution to the problem that was assigned to us and helped integrate that solution into the client’s business.  Each day, I make sure our team members understand that exceptional performance and seamless execution keeps our clients coming back.  I also carefully select the consultants that work for NOVAD.  Currently, we have technical expertise in the fields of project management, accounting and auditing, strategic planning, business process re-engineering, financial advisory services, asset and property management, IT support — as well as training and coaching skills.