Deon Brown, chair of the chamber’s membership committee
Even as the number of Black-owned businesses continues to grow nationally, the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, Inc., the largest in the state, wants to promote an increase in the number of businesses that have employees.
“Building capacity, identifying, nurturing, and developing small businesses owner’s potential to grow and develop their sole proprietorship’s ability to employ greater numbers of the community will significantly impact economic growth in the African American Community,” says Phil Andrews, President, Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, Inc.
Joining the African American Chamber of Commerce as a sole proprietor is the first step in building a unique community in New York State to support existing businesses and to help them access the tools and services to foster growth of their businesses to the next level, Andrews adds. The chamber has launched a “Build New Member Sole Proprietorship Campaign Initiative.”
A special new membership code has been created for sole proprietorships on the chamber’s site to facilitate easy sole proprietorship new member sign up at: https://liaacc.org/join-liaacc/
Black owned businesses in the United States increased 34.5% between 2007 and 2012 totaling 2.6 million Black firms. More than 95% of these businesses are mostly sole proprietorship or partnerships which have no paid employees. About 4 in 10 black-owned businesses (1.1 million) in 2012 operated in the health care, social assistance; and other services such as repair, maintenance, personal and laundry services sectors.
Deon Brown, chair of the chamber’s membership committee says by joining the chamber’s initiative small business owners will see “a significant impact on [their] revenue…”
According to Blackdemographics.com receipts from black-owned businesses with employees totaled $103.5 billion an increase of 4.7 percent from 2007. In 2012, 2.5 million black-owned businesses had no paid employees, an increase of 38.9 percent from 2007. These non-employer businesses’ receipts totaled $46.8 billion, an increase of 21.2 percent.
Since its inception the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce has been actively engaged in bringing quality services to the African American Community to increase both size and the scope of small business owners in its service territory in New York State. The chamber promotes its services on social media platforms and its leaders have been interviewed by several media outlets.
To join the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, Inc.’s Build Sole Proprietorship 2019 – 2020 New Member Recruitment Campaign Initiative click here:https://liaacc.org/join-liaacc/ choose the “Sole Proprietor” Membership Level then enter “Sole Proprietor” as Discount Code.
