The State of Black America 2012 – Website
The report includes the following chapters:
· “The National Urban League Introduces New Report on the State of Urban Business.” Adapted from The State of Urban Business 2011: US Cities that Lead the Way. See an excerpt from the executive summary below.
· “Creating Jobs and Opportunities through Minority-Owned Businesses.” Lloyd C. Blankfein (CEO, Goldman Sachs). See excerpt below.
See also (webcast): The State of Black America 2012 – Town Hall event at Howard University’s Cramton Auditorium, Washington, DC.
State of Urban Business 2011 – Website
Includes: links to video of a CNBC interview with National Urban League President/CEO, Marc Morial, on the State of Urban Business 2011 report; press releases; and media coverage.
State of Urban Business 2011: US Cities that Lead the Way – Report. National Urban League Policy Institute.
Excerpt from the Executive Summary:
Ranking of some of the top metro areas for black-owned businesses in America:
…This analysis is different from others because it is based largely on the actual performance of businesses within these areas as opposed to solely on the economic or demographic characteristics of the metro areas. …Eleven metro areas made this initial cut and were ranked based on seven characteristics of black-owned businesses in each metro area:
1. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
3. Tie between Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI and Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI
4. Tie between Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA and Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC
5. St. Louis, MO-IL
6. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
7. Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH
8. New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
9. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
…Our analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007 Survey of Business Owners (SBO) and the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) reveal (sic) that:
1. The greatest weakness in African-American entrepreneurship is not in starting businesses, but rather in growing these businesses to a scale sufficient for sustained and significant revenue generation.
2. For young firms (5 years), the ability to expand the customer base beyond individuals and to conduct a larger share of business with other businesses and the government is critical to firm growth and survival.
3. While the most challenging problems facing all businesses since 2008 have been slow or lost sales and unpredictability of business conditions, an “inability to obtain credit” remains more of an obstacle for African-American business owners than for any other group.
4. Black-owned firms are most likely to receive business training, mentoring or technical assistance from lower cost providers like the SBA or a non-profit association for small businesses.
Based on these findings, NUL offers the following recommendations for growing and strengthening black-owned as well as other minority-owned businesses:
1. Increase funding available for small business loans.
2. Raise the set-aside cap for government small business contracts.
3. Unbundle federal contracts and clearly define “small business” to increase access to opportunities for small business.
4. Establish robust small or minority business set-aside or procurement goals at all levels of government (federal, state and local) and implement third party monitoring of these goals.
5. Encourage support for private sector supplier diversity programs.
6. Establish a permanent and focused minority and urban business technical assistance fund.
7. Permanently eliminate SBA loan guarantee fees.
In accordance with the key findings and recommendations of this report, The State of Urban Business 2011 also highlights a number of NUL programs and initiatives that are helping to provide much needed technical assistance and financial support of urban businesses:
• The Entrepreneurship Center Program (ECP), in its 6th year of operation with nine centers operating in Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Cincinnati, OH, Cleveland, OH, Jacksonville, FL, Kansas City, MO, Los Angeles, CA, New Orleans, LA and Philadelphia, PA. Five of these nine locations are in cities that made our list of Top Metro Areas for Black-owned Businesses. The services offered by the ECP-assisted entrepreneurs in receiving $20.19 million in new bonding, new contracts and financing during 2010.
• New Market Tax Credit Program (NMTC)/Strategic Alliance between Stonehenge Community Development and the National Urban League through which we have deployed $352.5 million of the allocations as of the 3rd quarter of 2011, closing 28 NMTC allocations in various states around the U.S. with investments ranging in size from $3 million to $25 million. This has led to the creation or saving of more than 8,000 jobs nationwide.
• The Urban Empowerment Fund, a planned future endeavor of the National Urban League to fill a credit gap that has widened during the last two years, particularly in minority communities. The Urban Empowerment Fund will invest in new and expanding small businesses, nonprofit organizations, community facilities and affordable housing development in underserved communities of color throughout the country. Through its lending activity, the Urban Empowerment Fund will help empower African Americans to attain economic self-sufficiency and to create sustainable, vibrant minority communities throughout the country.
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Excerpt from: “Creating Jobs and Opportunities through Minority-Owned Businesses.” By Lloyd C. Blankfein (CEO, Goldman Sachs), in The State of Black America 2012
…Leading business, academic and non-profit experts—like Warren Buffett, Marc H. Morial, and Dr. Michael Porter of Harvard Business School—reinforced the idea that small businesses needed a combination of business education, networking and capital to jumpstart their growth. They also pointed to community based organizations—specifically, community colleges and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)—as the ideal partners to deliver business education and capital. It quickly became clear that community-based economic development organizations, like the National Urban League, were best equipped to provide technical assistance and networking opportunities to high growth small businesses. Since April 2010, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses has reached nearly 600 underserved business owners in the United States. These businesses represent a broad range of industries—from manufacturers, to IT businesses, to security and landscaping companies. They also represent the diversity and potential of American small business—with more than 40% being Black or Latino-owned businesses, as compared to the national average of 15%….
…10,000 Small Businesses is a partnership-driven model and chief among our partners is the National Urban League (NUL). …NUL’s local chapters were also ideally positioned to work hand-in-hand with 10,000 Small Businesses’ community college and CDFI partners to source high potential small business applicants and deliver business clinics and networking sessions to participating business owners. Take Nolan Rollins and Andrea Zopp, whose teams in New Orleans and Chicago have leveraged their NUL Entrepreneurship Centers and local relationships to provide value added services and to connect participating businesses to contracting and business-to-business opportunities.
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The State of Black America 2011 – Jobs Rebuild America
“Everything that we do in this nation ought to be about job creation. The economy has undergone structural changes that require targeted solutions. The 12-point Urban Jobs Rebuild America Plan provides a roadmap to those solutions and The State of Black America 2011 includes several great vehicles to take us there.”
The report includes:
Among the solutions recommended are: Urban Jobs Academies, reauthorization of a reformed and revised Workforce Investment Act, and Green Empowerment Zones in areas of high unemployment.
- Economic Innovation: Finance and Lending Initiatives Bring Prosperity to Underserved Communities. By Keith B. Corbett
“…[O]ne approach for an inclusive recovery is to provide whole community restoration and development in low-to-moderate income neighborhoods. Public subsidized financing and lending initiatives leveraged with private capital have emerged as newly favored approaches toward servicing low-to-moderate income communities. This model of pairing private market-driven investing with the public interest should be both fostered and expanded. From Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs), to New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs), the idea of leveraging is a proven catalyst for private investment.”
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See also:
At Risk: The State of the Black Middle Class. National Urban League study.
“… [A]lmost all the economic gains that blacks have made in the last 30 years have been lost in the Great Recession that started in December 2007 and in the anemic recovery that has followed since June 2009. Not only is the size of the black middle class shrinking…the fruits that come from being in the black middle class are dwindling, and the ladders of opportunity for reaching the black middle class are disappearing.”
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