Let’s Buy Black 365’s Gives Committed Black-owned Business a $1 Million Stimulus to Boost the Black Economy.
January 15, 2018 – Washington, DC – Let’s Buy Black 365, known for its Black economic empowerment initiatives for individuals is shaking things up in 2018 to help Black-owned small businesses thrive in the New Year. Since it started in 2014, Let’s Buy Black has been a movement of individuals seeking to bolster support for Black people spending money in our own community. They successfully ran a campaign to deliver water, toiletries, and supplies produced by Black manufactures to residents affected by the genocide in Flint, Michigan. They led the State of the Black World economic plenary and executed a multi-step economic initiative. They even documented companies that are invested slavery through the prison industrial complex. They declared “no more boycotts. We are permanently withdrawing economic support for companies that exploit Black people.” These initiatives have helped people reclaim the power of the Black dollar in their everyday life on a substantive, tangible way, meaningful way.
But the awful truth is that there are not enough quality African American owned businesses that are operationally efficient and financially sound. According to Blackdemographics.com (2018), approximately 95% of Black-owned business are sole proprietorships with no compensated employees. The annual sales for most of these businesses are below the individual poverty line. That means even if, we turn our attention to African American owned businesses as consumers, the gaps are wide.
Now, beyond catalyzing a movement of individuals committed to buying Black, Let’s Buy Black 365 is broadening its focus to include empowering Black-owned small businesses directly.
According to Investopedia, “A stimulus package is a package of economic measures put together by a government to stimulate a floundering economy. The objective of a stimulus package is to reinvigorate the economy and prevent or reverse a recession by boosting employment and spending.” According to the spokesperson, Nataki Kambon, “every time we met this issue came up of how do we get mass resources to Black-owned businesses to help the Black economy reset itself. So, the idea was hatched if governments can stimulate their businesses and economies why can’t we do the same in our own communities?”
People with viable business ideas or existing businesses can by apply for access to the Million Dollar service pool. The selected applicants will receive services and direct development.
On December 29, 2017, the anniversary of the Let’s Buy Black 365 movement which, happens to be the Ujamaa, cooperative economics principle of Kwanzaa, Let’s Buy Black announced it’s 1 Million Dollar capitalization pool initiative internally to its members subscribed to LetsBuyBlack365.com. On January 8, 2018, the initiative was announced on the pilot episode of Connect TV by Let’s Buy Black 365.
The way it works is that Black entrepreneurs apply, and if they qualify, the get access to a portion of a pool of $1 Million dollars of direct business growth services. If accepted that business will be surrounded by all the management resources to stabilize its infrastructure, and then undergo a strategic accelerated growth plan.
The idea is that the Black community can’t afford for its businesses to idle by over years. Selected entrepreneurs with potential are getting a 3-6-month direct growth implementation. The mission is to scale qualified microbusinesses to the enterprise level. For the businesses and the individuals in surrounding communities, this means job creation, professional development, community stabilization, and the start of economic power bases.
Nataki Kambon is no stranger to business growth. As a management consultant, she has helped many businesses grow to million-dollar revenues but she notes that none of the companies she’s worked with have been Black-owned.
“What’s exciting about this is that we’re not just talking about doing business coaching, training or education. We will absolutely be surrounding the individuals with resources and sending in teams to directly implement the services their businesses need to be fully operational, efficient, and most importantly, profitable. We’re talking about completely transforming their businesses by providing comprehensive services, such as accounting, marketing, operations, human resources, and administrative infrastructure.” – Nataki Kambon
The idea behind this initiative was to provide a means to help Black entrepreneurs build sustainable enterprises that not only serve as sources of income for themselves and their families, but also that help contribute to the Black community as a whole, over generations. Lets Buy Black 365 partnered with a Black-owned consulting firm on this contest to help Black business owners achieve success, thereby giving them the ability to create jobs, stimulate economic growth, and build a legacy along with wealth.
According to the promo video, they decided to give away $1 million in services instead of 1 million in cash for one reason. They wanted to avoid the lottery-winner effect. Nataki defines the lottery-effect as when someone wins the lottery and then becomes broke again six months later. “By providing direct infrastructure and management, the company is stabilized, the owner is acclimated to running a business, and the long-term potential is infinitely greater”.
The initiative does come with some stipulations for applicant businesses. First, some industries are automatically disqualified. Self-help coaches, are disqualified because the business model doesn’t lend producing massive jobs within the company nor are they generally scalable beyond branding the individual. Illegal, unethical, immoral businesses are not welcome and neither are independent agencies of non-Black-owned franchises nor are multi-level marketing firms. Also, businesses are not welcome if they are affiliated with sweatshops, adult entertainment, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, or narcotics. According to Nataki, “We’re helping entrepreneurs that wish to thrive without creating more depravity in our community. Yes, those businesses can and will continue to exist, we just will not give them a dime to do it. We are not going to finance the furtherance of exploitation in the Black community just because the owner is Black. That is not what this is about. It’s about building businesses, manufacturers, operations that reflect the Kwanzaa principal Kuumba, to creatively leave our community more beautiful and more beneficial than when we inherited it.”
Another stipulation is that access to the million-dollar pool is not free. We added an initial cost to this for two reasons, said Nataki. “One, we needed to weed out the people who are just going after free money but have no desire or acumen to follow through on the creation of an intergenerational sustainable business.” It’s fine if people have ‘side hustles’, we’re just not financing the growth of a ‘side hustle.’ We’re financing the growth of small businesses and micro-businesses into operational enterprises. We are creating the next leaders in our community”
The good news is that the price tag will be easily attainable for most of the serious applicants. When businesses apply for loans, lenders want to see the owner put up anywhere from 20% to 50%. Of course, with lending not only do they have to pay back the money, they also have to figure out how to use it wisely. With the Let’s Buy Black 365 1 million dollar initiative, the businesses may be able to scale six-figure and seven-figure revenues with as little as 5 to 10%. No payback is required but the company does have to commit to helping its community.
According to Nataki “this is our due diligence check to make sure that the owner has some skin in the game and is approaching this with a long-term vision.”
“We can only realize economic empowerment when thriving, committed, Black-owned businesses are in a position to employ the best and brightest from our community, and when individuals are able to have unwavering faith in Black businesses for employment and protection.”
The initiative will showcase the successes of the companies at the end of the summer. Applications are being accepted from existing business owners, organizations and first-time entrepreneurs. Also, other Black-owned management consulting firms or consultants are being welcomed in to support the initiative. For more information about the initiative including details on how to apply, visit the LetsBuyBlack.com/scalemybusiness for the application and details.
Media Contact: Jonelle
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