Minority Enterprise Development Week aims to foster positive change
Minority businesses are growing in number, but they’re not keeping pace in many other ways. National Minority Enterprise Development Week (MED Week) approaches next month, giving the community a chance to look at the current situation and what is being done to foster positive change.
Minority-owned businesses contribute more than $1.4 billion in Anderson, Greenville and Spartanburg counties, according to the 2007 U.S. Economic Census, the most recent data available.
Despite becoming more numerous, minority businesses remain smaller in scale for a number of reasons. As with many businesses these days, access to capital can be difficult. But even when it’s achieved, minority businesses face low loan amounts, higher denial rates and higher interest rates than non-minority firms, according to a 2010 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency. Some face cultural barriers that make is harder to chart the business landscape.
Several groups and initiatives are working to level the playing field in our region. The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (HCC) and the Minority Economic Development Institute Inc. (MEDII) are two dedicated organizations that have emerged in the past six years. Last year the Upstate Chamber of Commerce began its own diversity and inclusion initiative.
Both Sides of Business
MEDII, which brought MED Week to Greenville, is shifting its organizational focus, said president and CEO S.T. Peden. The group has begun to generate research that will help minorities and others in the community understand the economic impact of minority organizations and businesses.
Although opportunities are open to all, processes often are not, Peden said. “We track the major projects in Greenville … so we know what they are, and there are some major projects in Greenville that have almost zero minority participation.”
The research findings will be revealed at the CEO roundtable Wednesday, Sept. 18, and Peden said he expects some of the information to be “startling.” MEDII also plans to highlight the large area companies that have given significant business to minorities.
In addition, MEDII is paying more attention to other economic impacts Greenville’s African-Americans make. Peden said the “big one there is per-capita income,” where the conversation tends to focus on the middle-class and above, excluding the poor.
“Some would ask, ‘Why are you only talking about African-Americans?’ The reason we focused the study is because if you take the ethnic minorities, Asians, Hispanics and others, you will find that African-Americans are at the bottom as citizens and as businesses,” Peden said. “We focus on minorities, but our focus in terms of where the greatest need is now is with African-Americans.”
Documentation and education on spending power is also a new focus. MEDII is conducting a study of 35 predominantly African-American churches’ banking activities in order to quantify their contribution to bank assets. The idea is to see how much capital African-Americans are contributing versus how much they are receiving. The hope is that MED Week will kick off community-wide dialogue based on the data.
Hispanic Perspectives
For many Hispanic business owners, learning the basics is hugely important, said Evelyn Lugo, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She said the six-year-old organization has focused on educating business owners about issues such as finances and marketing, even as it works to grow its own influence.
Lugo said she has seen an increase in service industry and restaurants, as well as lots of cleaning and construction companies. They tend to stick with industries that are familiar or which have proven successful for Hispanics in other parts of the country.
“In South Carolina, the thing here is that we are a young kind of community and we have challenges across the board, especially with language,” Lugo said. “After that is access to capital and access to education in how to manage a business.”
Lugo said Hispanics in other states such as California, Texas and Florida have the benefit of more established communities. “Even North Carolina that is so close to us, the community is so different.” She said that has a positive effect on their business communities. “They’re already kind of integrated even though they keep their cultural background. That’s what we hope to see here in the next 10 years.”
But looming political issues on the national scene are also taking their toll on the community. Lugo said the immigration debate has brought greater scrutiny on the Hispanic community, as has Hispanics’ increasing political power. The immigration system itself poses a threat to businesses in the hospitality, agriculture and industrial sectors. Inadequate solutions could jeopardize the $1.7 billion in revenue Lugo said Hispanic-owned businesses bring in across the state according to the economic census.
Creating a Whole from Parts
Different groups have their specific concerns, but all express a need for greater connectivity between minority and non-minority businesses. As much as groups are working to educate their constituents about doing business better, they are also trying to educate the larger community about the many opportunities there are to work with minority businesses. It’s a matter of bringing everyone to the table, group leaders say, and at least a few tables will be set for that purpose next month.
